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University of Cincinnati

Ohio, united states.

The English Department is home to a thriving Creative Writing program. Our faculty have collectively published more than forty books of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and criticism. They have won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the Fulbright Program, as well as University-wide awards for outstanding teaching and mentoring. For undergraduates, we offer a track within the English major, as well as a certificate in Creative Writing. For graduate students, we offer a PhD. Students at all levels focus on either fiction, literary nonfiction, or poetry. We are home to an undergraduate journal, Short Vine, and the nationally prominent literary journal The Cincinnati Review. Our PhD program was recently ranked eighth in the country by Poets & Writers.

Contact Information

Department of English & Comparative Literature PO Box 210069 Cincinnati Ohio, United States 45221-0069 Phone: 513-556-0913 Email: [email protected] http://artsci.uc.edu/creativewriting

Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing +

Undergraduate program director.

Degree: English Major, Creative Writing Track

The Creative Writing track in the English major is designed for students who wish to explore the writing of poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction; improve their editorial skills; and examine works of literature through the lens of craft. Students take a three-class workshop sequence, culminating in a capstone that will result in a substantial body of work. In Forms of Fiction, Forms of Poetry, and Forms of Literary Nonfiction, students increase their understanding of the techniques involved in the creation of the literary arts, from meter to point of view. Literature classes in the chosen genre continue to expand students' reading, writing, and critical thinking skills, as well as their knowledge of both canonical and contemporary works.

Master of Arts in Creative Writing +

Graduate program director.

The MA in Creative Writing and Literature is a two-year course of study designed to prepare students for an MFA or PhD in creative writing. The two years of course work include workshop, forms classes, pedagogical training, literature, and theory, and, in the second semester of the second year, thesis hours during which students work with a faculty director on a longer manuscript. Students take three courses and teach one per semester. Recent MA graduates have gone on to MFA programs at Ohio State University, Bowling Green University, the University of South Carolina, Virginia Tech, the University of Wyoming, and the University of Wisconsin; and PhD programs at the University of North Texas, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and here at UC.

PhD in Creative Writing +

The PhD in Creative Writing and Literature is a four-year course of study. Following two years of course work that includes workshop, forms classes, pedagogical training, literature, and theory, students take exams in two areas, one which examines texts through the lens of craft and another which examines them through the lens of literary history and theory. Recent examples of the genre area include Comic Fiction, History of the Love Lyric, and Fantasy; recent examples of the scholarly area include History of the Novel, 20th Century American Poetry, and Modern & Contemporary British Fiction. In the first two years, students take three courses per semester; the teaching load throughout the program is one class per semester.

Every PhD student has the opportunity to teach creative writing, with many also teaching literature classes. Most students are funded by teaching, with two or three at a time funded by editorial work at The Cincinnati Review, and others funded in their dissertation year by college- or university-level fellowships. Fifth-year support, while not guaranteed, has generally been available to interested students in the form of student lecturerships, which carry a 2-2 load. The Creative Writing PhD at the University of Cincinnati has maintained over the last decade more than a 75% placement rate into full-time academic jobs for its doctoral graduates. Two-thirds of these positions are tenure-track.

Chris Bachelder

Dayswork, The Throwback Special; Abbott Awaits; US!; Bear v. Shark

http://www.artsci.uc.edu/departments/english/profiles/chris_bachelder.html

Michael Griffith

The Speaking Stone; Trophy; Bibliophilia; Spikes

http://www.artsci.uc.edu/departments/english/profiles/michael_griffith.html

Kristen Iversen

Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats; Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth; Shadow Boxing: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction

http://www.kristeniversen.com/

Rebecca Lindenberg

The Logan Notebooks; Love, an Index

http://www.rebeccalindenberg.com/

Aditi Machado

Emporium; Some Beheadings; Rhapsody; The End

https://www.aditimachado.com/

James Schiff

Critical Essays on Reynolds Price; John Updike Revisited; Understanding Reynolds Price; Updike's Version: Rewriting "The Scarlet Letter"

http://www.artsci.uc.edu/departments/english/profiles/james_schiff.html

Leah Stewart

What You Don't Know About Charlie Outlaw; The New Neighbor; The History of Us; Husband and Wife; The Myth of You & Me; Body of a Girl

http://www.leahstewart.com/

Felicia Zamora

Quotient; I Always Carry My Bones; Body of Render; Instrument of Gaps; & in Open, Marvel; Of Form & Gather

https://www.feliciazamora.com/

Publications & Presses +

The Cincinnati Review

The John Updike Review

Visiting Writers Program +

The Creative Writing Program's Visiting Writers Series brings a number of distinguished authors to campus each semester. Visitors often conduct a colloquium with creative writing students in addition to giving a public reading.

Each year, through the Elliston Poet-in-Residence Program, a distinguished poet comes to campus to give public lectures and readings, and to conduct poetry seminars and workshops. The biennial Emerging Fiction Writers Festival brings four writers to campus for two days of readings and panels.

Past visiting writers have included Nicholson Baker, Charles Baxter, Mark Doty, Rita Dove, Alice Fulton, Terrance Hayes, Denis Johnson, Lorrie Moore, Antonya Nelson, Robert Pinsky, Tracy K. Smith, Mary Szybist, and Colson Whitehead.

Reading Series +

UC Visiting Writers Series ( http://www.artsci.uc.edu/departments/creative_writing/visiting_writers_series.html )

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Fully Funded PhD in Creative Writing at University of Cincinnati

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The University of Cincinnati, situated in Cincinnati, Ohio, presents an enticing opportunity for aspiring scholars with its fully funded four-year Ph.D. program in Creative Writing. This comprehensive program is designed to equip students with a profound understanding of creative writing through a diverse curriculum spanning two years of coursework. The coursework covers a spectrum of elements, including workshops, forms classes, pedagogical training, literature, and theory.

PhD Program Requirements

Prospective candidates must meet specific eligibility criteria to be considered for admission to the Ph.D. program. A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field is typically a prerequisite.

PhD Funding Coverage

The University of Cincinnati is committed to providing financial support to Ph.D. students in Creative Writing. Most students in the program receive funding through teaching opportunities. As part of the program, every Ph.D. student has the chance to teach creative writing, and many also engage in teaching literature classes. This teaching experience not only contributes to the development of the students’ pedagogical skills but also serves as a primary means of financial support during their studies.

Application Requirement

The admission process at the University of Cincinnati involves the submission of a well-rounded application package. This includes:

Academic Transcripts: Applicants must provide official transcripts from their previous educational institutions, demonstrating a strong academic background.

Letters of Recommendation: The application should include letters of recommendation from individuals familiar with the applicant’s academic and creative abilities. These recommendations play a crucial role in assessing the candidate’s potential for success in the program.

Statement of Purpose: A thoughtful and articulate statement of purpose outlining the applicant’s academic and creative goals, as well as their alignment with the program’s objectives, is a key component of the application.

Writing Sample: Applicants are required to submit a writing sample that showcases their creative abilities. This sample may include fiction, poetry, or other relevant creative works.

Application Deadline

January 1, 2025

Application Fee

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Fully Funded PhD in Creative Writing at University of Cincinnati

Post published: May 10, 2023
Reading time: 5 mins read

Are you looking to take your education and career to the next level? Do you have a passion for research and a desire to make meaningful contributions to your field of study? If so, a Funded PhD programs may be the perfect choice for you.

Attention all aspiring scholars and researchers! The University of Cincinnati is accepting applications for our prestigious funded PhD programs. Apply to the University of Cincinnati’s PhD program today and take the first step towards a rewarding and fulfilling academic career.

About Fully Funded PhD in Creative Writing

The University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides a four-year PhD program in Creative Writing that is completely funded. Students take tests in two categories after two years of course work that includes workshops, forms classes, pedagogical training, literature, and theory. Recent genre examples include Comic Fiction, the History of the Love Lyric, and Fantasy; scholarly examples include the History of the Novel, 20th Century American Poetry, and Modern & Contemporary British Fiction.

Eligibility Criteria

Earned master’s degree prior to entering the PhD.
You are expected to have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 and subject-specific GPA of 3.5 or above.
English language proficiency requirements (non-native English speakers)

PhD Funding Coverage

Every Ph.D. student is given the opportunity to teach creative writing, and many also teach literature. The majority of children are supported by their professors.

Explore Open Funded PhD Position Here

Application requirement .

Official transcripts from previously attended college/ university.
English language proficiency test scores such as TOEFL, IELTS, etc. (for non-native English speakers only)
Entrance test scores, GRE*, GMAT* or other accepted scores*
Research proposal
Statement of purpose
Writing samples
Letters of recommendation
Up-to-date resume
Copy of passport
Financial documents including bank statements

*Please check if GRE, GMAT is need at official university website.

Application Deadline

The application deadline is December 1.

PhD Career: What are the Career Option?

How to apply funded phd program.

Applications are submitted through the online Graduate Application portal. Please upload all required documents on your Graduate Application.

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Creative Writing at University of Cincinnati - Main Campus

Jump to any of the following sections:

Available Degrees
Student Demographics
Related Majors

Creative Writing Degrees Available at UC

Undergraduate Certificates in Creative Writing
Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing
Graduate Certificates in Creative Writing
Master’s Degree in Creative Writing
Doctorate Degree in Creative Writing

UC Creative Writing Rankings

UC was ranked #23 on College Factual's most recent list of the best schools for creative writing majors. This puts the bachelor's program at the school solidly in the top 15% of all colleges and universities in the country. It is also ranked #2 in Ohio .

Popularity of Creative Writing at UC

During the 2020-2021 academic year, University of Cincinnati - Main Campus handed out 27 bachelor's degrees in creative writing. This is an increase of 42% over the previous year when 19 degrees were handed out.

In 2021, 2 students received their master’s degree in creative writing from UC. This makes it the #198 most popular school for creative writing master’s degree candidates in the country.

In addition, 6 students received their doctoral degrees in creative writing in 2021, making the school the #2 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Creative Writing Student Diversity at UC

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the creative writing majors at University of Cincinnati - Main Campus.

UC Creative Writing Bachelor’s Program

During the 2020-2021 academic year, 27 students graduated with a bachelor's degree in creative writing from UC. About 37% were men and 63% were women.

The majority of bachelor's degree recipients in this major at UC are white. In the most recent graduating class for which data is available, 81% of students fell into this category.

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

UC Creative Writing Master’s Program

All of the 2 students who graduated with a Master’s in creative writing from UC in 2021 were women.

The majority of master's degree recipients in this major at UC are white. In the most recent graduating class for which data is available, 100% of students fell into this category.

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

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Ph.D. Creative Writing

Ph.d. in creative writing.

A rigorous program that combines creative writing and literary studies, the Ph.D. in Creative Writing prepares graduates for both scholarly and creative publication and teaching. With faculty guidance, students admitted to the Ph.D. program may tailor their programs to their goals and interests.

The creative writing faculty at KU has been widely published and anthologized, winning both critical and popular acclaim. Faculty awards include such distinctions as the Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Osborn Award, Shelley Memorial Award, Gertrude Stein Award, the Kenyon Review Prize, the Kentucky Center Gold Medallion, and the Pushcart Prize.

Regarding admission to both our doctoral and MFA creative writing programs, we will prioritize applicants who are interested in engaging with multiple faculty members to practice writing across genres and forms, from speculative fiction and realism to poetry and playwriting/screenwriting, etc.

The University of Kansas' Graduate Program in Creative Writing also offers an M.F.A degree .

Opportunities

A GTA appointment includes a tuition waiver for ten semesters plus a competitive stipend. In the first year, GTA appointees teach English 101 (first year composition) and English 102 (a required reading and writing course). Creative Writing Ph.D. students may have the opportunity to teach an introductory course in creative writing after passing the doctoral examination, and opportunities are available for a limited number of advanced GTAs to teach in the summer.

Department Resources

Graduate Admissions
Graduate Contacts
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

Affiliated Programs

LandLocked Literary Magazine
The Project on the History of Black Writing
Center for the Study of Science Fiction
Ad-Hoc African/Americanists and Affiliates

Degree Requirements

At least 24 hours of credit in appropriate formal graduate courses beyond the M.A. or M.F.A. At least 15 hours (in addition to ENGL 800 if not taken for the M.A.) of this course work must be taken from among courses offered by the Department of English at the 700-level and above. English 997 and 999 credits cannot be included among the 24 hours. Students may petition to take up to 6 hours outside the Department.
ENGL 800: Methods, Theory, and Professionalism (counts toward the 24 required credit hours).
The ENGL 801/ENGL 802 pedagogy sequence (counts toward the 24 required credit hours).
Two seminars (courses numbered 900 or above) offered by the Department of English at the University of Kansas, beyond the M.A. or M.F.A. ENGL 998 does not fulfill this requirement.
ENGL 999, Dissertation (at least 12 hours).

If the M.A. or M.F.A. was completed in KU’s Department of English, a doctoral student may petition the DGS to have up to 12 hours of the coursework taken in the English Department reduced toward the Ph.D.

For Doctoral students, the university requires completion of a course in responsible scholarship . For the English department, this would be ENGL 800, 780, or the equivalent). In addition, the Department requires reading knowledge of one approved foreign language: Old English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Greek, Latin, or Hebrew. Upon successful petition, a candidate may substitute reading knowledge of another language or research skill that is studied at the University or is demonstrably appropriate to the candidate’s program of study.

Doctoral students must fulfill the requirement before they take their doctoral examination, or be enrolled in a reading course the same semester as the exam. Students are permitted three attempts at passing each foreign language or research skill. Three methods of demonstrating reading knowledge for all approved languages except Old English are acceptable:

Presenting 16 hours, four semesters, or the equivalent of undergraduate credit, earned with an average of C or better.
Passing a graduate reading course at the University of Kansas or peer institution (e.g., French 100, German 100, etc.) with a grade of C or higher. In the past, some of these reading courses have been given by correspondence; check with the Division of Continuing Education for availability.
Passing a translation examination given by a designated member of the English Department faculty or by the appropriate foreign language department at KU. The exam is graded pass/fail and requires the student to translate as much as possible of a representative text in the foreign language in a one-hour period, using a bilingual dictionary.
Passing a translation examination given by the appropriate foreign language department at the M.A.-granting institution. Successful completion must be reflected either on the M.A. transcript or by a letter from the degree-granting department.

To fulfill the language requirement using Old English, students must successfully complete ENGL 710 (Introduction to Old English) and ENGL 712 (Beowulf).

Post-Coursework Ph.D. students must submit, with their committee chair(s), an annual review form to the DGS and Graduate Committee.

Doctoral students must take their doctoral examination within three semesters (excluding summers) of the end of the semester in which they took their final required course. If a student has an Incomplete, the timeline is not postponed until the Incomplete is resolved. For example, a student completing doctoral course work in Spring 2018 will need to schedule their doctoral exam no later than the end of Fall semester 2019. Delays may be granted by petition to the Graduate Director in highly unusual circumstances. Failure to take the exam within this time limit without an approved delay will result in the student’s falling out of good standing. For details on the consequences of falling out of good standing, see “Falling Out of Good Standing,” in General Department Policies and Best Practices.

A student may not take their doctoral exam until the university’s Research Skills and Responsible Scholarship requirement is fulfilled (ENGL 800 or equivalent and reading knowledge of one foreign language or equivalent).

Requirements for Doctoral Exams

Reading Lists:

All students are required to submit three reading lists, based on the requirements below, to their committee for approval. The doctoral exam will be held on a date at least twelve weeks after the approval from the whole committee is received. To facilitate quick committee approval, students may copy the graduate program coordinator on the email to the committee that contains the final version of the lists. Committee members may then respond to the email in lieu of signing a printed copy. Students should work with their committee chair and graduate program coordinator to schedule the exam at the same time as they finalize the lists.

During the two-hour oral examination (plus an additional 15-30 minutes for a break and committee deliberation), a student will be tested on their comprehension of a literary period or movement, including multiple genres and groups of authors within that period or movement. In addition, the student will be tested on two of the following six areas of study:

An adjacent or parallel literary period or movement,
An author or group of related authors,
Criticism and literary theory,
Composition theory, and
English language.

No title from any field list may appear on either of the other two lists. See Best Practices section for more details on these six areas. See below for a description of the Review of the Dissertation Proposal (RDP), which the candidate takes the semester after passing the doctoral exam.

While many students confer with the DGS as they begin the process of developing their lists, they are also required to submit a copy of their final exam list to the DGS. Most lists will be left intact, but the DGS might request that overly long lists be condensed, or extremely short lists be expanded.

Review of Literature

The purpose of the Review of Literature is to develop and demonstrate an advanced awareness of the critical landscape for each list. The student will write an overview of the defining attributes of the field, identifying two or three broad questions that animate scholarly discussion, while using specific noteworthy texts from their list ( but not all texts on the list ) as examples.

The review also must accomplish the following:

consider the historical context of major issues, debates, and trends that factor into the emergence of the field
offer a historical overview of scholarship in the field that connects the present to the past
note recent trends and emergent lines of inquiry
propose questions about (develop critiques of, and/or identify gaps in) the field and how they might be pursued in future study (but not actually proposing or referencing a dissertation project)

For example, for a literary period, the student might include an overview of primary formal and thematic elements, of the relationship between literary and social/historical developments, of prominent movements, (etc.), as well as of recent critical debates and topics.

For a genre list, the Review of Literature might include major theories of its constitution and significance, while outlining the evolution of these theories over time.

For a Rhetoric and Composition list, the review would give an overview of major historical developments, research, theories, methods, debates, and trends of scholarship in the field.

For an English Language Studies (ELS) list, the review would give an overview of the subfields that make up ELS, the various methodological approaches to language study, the type of sources used, and major aims and goals of ELS. The review also usually involves a focus on one subfield of particular interest to the student (such as stylistics, sociolinguistics, or World/Postcolonial Englishes).

Students are encouraged to divide reviews into smaller sections that enhance clarity and organization. Students are not expected to interact with every text on their lists.

The review of literature might be used to prepare students for identifying the most important texts in the field, along with why those texts are important to the field, for the oral exam. It is recommended for students to have completed reading the bulk of (if not all) texts on their lists before writing the ROL.

The Reviews of Literature will not be produced in an exam context, but in the manner of papers that are researched and developed in consultation with all advisors/committee members, with final drafts being distributed within a reasonable time for all members to review and approve in advance of the 3-week deadline . While the Review of Literature generally is not the focus of the oral examination, it is frequently used as a point of departure for questions and discussion during the oral examination.

Doctoral Exam Committee

Exam committees typically consist of 3 faculty members from the department—one of whom serves as the Committee Chair—plus a Graduate Studies Representative. University policy dictates the composition of exam committees . Students may petition for an exception for several committee member situations, with the exception of the Graduate Studies Representative .

If a student wants to have as a committee member a person outside the university, or a person who is not in a full-time tenure-track professorship at KU, the student must contact the Graduate Secretary as early as possible. Applications for special graduate faculty status must be reviewed by the College and Graduate Studies. Requests for exam/defense approval will not be approved unless all committee members currently hold either regular or special graduate faculty status

Remote participation of committee members via technology

Students with committee members who plan to attend the defense via remote technology must be aware of college policy on teleconferencing/remote participation of committee members .

A majority of committee members must be physically present for an examination to commence; for doctoral oral examinations this requirement is 2 of the 4 members, for master’s oral examinations the requirement is 2 of the 3 members. In addition, it is required that the student being examined, the chair of the committee, and the Graduate Studies Representative all be physically present at the examination or defense. Mediated attendance by the student, chair and Grad Studies Rep is prohibited.

The recommended time between completion of coursework and the doctoral examination is two semesters.

Final exam lists need to be approved and signed by the committee at least 12 weeks prior to the prospective exam date. This includes summers/summer semesters. The lists should then be submitted to the Graduate Program Coordinator. Reviews of Literature need to be approved and signed by the committee at least 3 weeks prior to the exam date. Failure to meet this deadline will result in rescheduling the exam. No further changes to lists or Reviews of Literature will be allowed after official approval. The three-week deadline is the faculty deadline--the last date for them to confirm receipt of the ROLs and confer approval--not necessarily the student deadline for submitting the documents to the faculty. Please keep that timing in mind and allow your committee adequate time to review the materials and provide feedback.

Students taking the Doctoral Exam are allowed to bring their text lists, the approved Reviews of Literature, scratch paper, a writing utensil, and notes/writing for an approximately 5-minute introductory statement to the exam. (This statement does not need to lay out ideas or any aspect of the dissertation project.)

Each portion of the oral examination must be deemed passing before the student can proceed to the Review of the Dissertation Proposal. If a majority of the committee judges that the student has not answered adequately on one of the three areas of the exam, the student must repeat that portion in a separate oral exam of one hour, to be taken as expeditiously as possible. Failure in two areas constitutes failure of the exam and requires a retake of the whole. The doctoral examining committee will render a judgment of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory on the entire examination. A student who fails the exam twice may, upon successful petition to the Graduate Committee, take it a third and final time.

Students cannot bring snacks, drinks, treats, or gifts for committee members to the exam. Professors should avoid the appearance of favoritism that may occur if they bring treats to some student exams but not others.

The doctoral oral examination has the following purposes:

To establish goals, tone, and direction for the pursuit of the Ph.D. in English for the Department and for individual programs of study;
To make clear the kinds of knowledge and skills that, in the opinion of the Department, all well-prepared holders of the degree should have attained;
To provide a means for the Department to assess each candidate’s control of such knowledge and skills in order to certify that the candidate is prepared to write a significant dissertation and enter the profession; and
To enable the Department to recommend to the candidate areas of strength or weakness that should be addressed.

In consultation with the Graduate Director, a student will ask a member of the Department’s graduate faculty (preferably their advisor) to be the chairperson of the examining committee. The choice of examination committee chair is very important, for that person’s role is to assist the candidate in designing the examination structure, preparing the Review of Literature (see below), negotiating reading lists and clarifying their purposes, and generally following procedures here outlined. The other three English Department members of the committee will be chosen in consultation with the committee chair. (At some point an additional examiner from outside the Department, who serves as the Graduate School representative, will be invited to join the committee). Any unresolved problems in negotiation between a candidate and their committee should be brought to the attention of the Graduate Director, who may choose to involve the Graduate Committee. A student may request a substitution in, or a faculty member may ask to be dismissed from, the membership of the examining committee. Such requests must be approved, in writing, by the faculty member leaving the committee and by the Graduate Director.

Reading Lists

Copies of some approved reading lists and Reviews of Literature are available from the Graduate Secretary and can be found on the U: drive if you are using a computer on campus. Despite the goal of fairness and equity, some unavoidable unevenness and disparity will appear in the length of these lists. It remains, however, the responsibility of the examining committee, and especially the student’s chair, to aim toward consonance with the most rigorous standards and expectations and to insure that areas of study are not unduly narrow.

To facilitate quick committee approval, students may copy the graduate secretary on the email to the committee that contains the final version of the lists and reviews of literature. Committee members may then respond to the email in lieu of signing a printed copy.

Comprehension of a literary period (e.g., British literature of the 18th century; Romanticism; US literature of the 19th century; Modernism) entails sufficient intellectual grasp of both the important primary works of and secondary works on the period or movement to indicate a student’s ability to teach the period or movement and undertake respectable scholarship on it.

Comprehension of an author or group of related authors (e.g., Donne, the Brontës, the Bloomsbury Group, the Black Mountain Poets) entails knowledge, both primary and secondary, of a figure or figures whose writing has generated a significant body of interrelated biographical, historical, and critical scholarship.

Comprehension of one of several genres (the short story, the lyric poem, the epistolary novel). To demonstrate comprehension of a genre, a student should possess sufficient depth and breadth of knowledge, both primary and secondary, of the genre to explain its formal characteristics and account for its historical development.

Comprehension of criticism and literary theory entails a grasp of fundamental conceptual problems inherent in a major school of literary study (e.g., historicist, psychoanalytic, feminist, poststructuralist, etc.). To demonstrate comprehension of that school of criticism and literary theory, a student should be able to discuss changes in its conventions and standards of interpretation and evaluation of literature from its beginning to the present. Students will be expected to possess sufficient depth and breadth of theoretical knowledge to bring appropriate texts and issues to bear on questions of literary study.

Comprehension of composition theory entails an intellectual grasp of fundamental concepts, issues, and theories pertaining to the study of writing. To demonstrate comprehension of composition theory, students should be able to discuss traditional and current issues from a variety of perspectives, as well as the field’s historical development from classical rhetoric to the present.

Comprehension of the broad field of English language studies entails a grasp of the field’s theoretical concepts and current issues, as well as a familiarity with significant works within given subareas. Such subareas will normally involve formal structures (syntax, etc.) and history of the English language, along with other subareas such as social linguistics, discourse analysis, lexicography, etc. Areas of emphasis and specific sets of topics will be arranged through consultation with relevant faculty.

Ph.D. candidates must be continuously enrolled in Dissertation hours each Fall and Spring semester from the time they pass the doctoral examination until successful completion of the final oral examination (defense of dissertation).

Students enroll for a minimum of 6 hours each Fall and Spring semester until the total of post-doctoral exam Dissertation hours is 18. One hour each semester must be ENGL 999. In order to more quickly reach the 18-hour minimum, and to be sooner eligible for GRAships, it is highly recommended that students enroll in 9 hours of Dissertation in the Spring and Fall semesters.
Once a student has accumulated 18 post-doctoral exam hours, each subsequent enrollment will be for a number of hours agreed upon as appropriate between the student and their advisor, the minimal enrollment each semester being 1 hour of ENGL 999.
A student must be enrolled in at least one hour of credit at KU during the semester they graduate. Although doctoral students must be enrolled in ENGL 999 while working on their dissertations, per current CLAS regulations, there is no absolute minimum number of ENGL 999 hours required for graduation.
Students who live and work outside the Lawrence area may, under current University regulations, have their fees assessed at the Field Work rate, which is somewhat lower than the on-campus rate. Students must petition the College Office of Graduate Affairs before campus fees will be waived.

Please also refer to the COGA policy on post-exam enrollment or the Graduate School’s policy .

As soon as possible following successful completion of the doctoral exam, the candidate should establish their three-person core dissertation committee, and then expeditiously proceed to the preparation of a dissertation proposal. Within the semester following completion of the doctoral exam , the student will present to their core dissertation committee a written narrative of approximately 10-15 pages , not including bibliography, of the dissertation proposal. While the exam schedule is always contingent on student progress, in the first two weeks of the semester in which they intend to take the review , students will work with their committee chair and the graduate program coordinator to schedule the 90-minute RDP. Copies of this proposal must be submitted to the members of the dissertation committee and Graduate Program Coordinator no later than three weeks prior to the scheduled examination date.

In the proposal, students will be expected to define: the guiding question or set of questions; a basic thesis (or hypothesis); how the works to be studied or the creative writing produced relate to that (hypo)thesis; the theoretical/methodological model to be followed; the overall formal divisions of the dissertation; and how the study will be situated in the context of prior scholarship (i.e., its importance to the field). The narrative section should be followed by a bibliography demonstrating that the candidate is conversant with the basic theoretical and critical works pertinent to the study. For creative writing students, the proposal may serve as a draft of the critical introduction to the creative dissertation. Students are expected to consult with their projected dissertation committee concerning the preparation of the proposal.

The review will focus on the proposal, although it could also entail determining whether or not the candidate’s knowledge of the field is adequate to begin the composition process. The examination will be graded pass/fail. If it is failed, the committee will suggest areas of weakness to be addressed by the candidate, who will rewrite the proposal and retake the review by the end of the following semester . If the candidate abandons the entire dissertation project for another, a new RDP will be taken. (For such a step to be taken, the change would need to be drastic, such as a move to a new field or topic. A change in thesis or the addition or subtraction of one or even several works to be examined would not necessitate a new proposal and defense.) If the student fails to complete the Review of the Dissertation Proposal within a year of the completion of the doctoral exams, they will have fallen out of departmental good standing. For details on the consequences of falling out of good standing, see “Falling Out of Good Standing,” in General Department Policies and Best Practices.

After passing the Review of the Dissertation Proposal, the student should forward one signed copy of the proposal to the Graduate Program Coordinator. The RDP may last no longer than 90 minutes.

Students cannot bring snacks, drinks, treats, or gifts for committee members to the review. Professors should avoid the appearance of favoritism that may occur if they bring treats to some student exams but not others.

The Graduate Catalog states that the doctoral candidate “must present a dissertation showing the planning, conduct and results of original research, and scholarly creativity.” While most Ph.D. candidates in the Department of English write dissertations of a traditional, research-oriented nature, a creative writing candidate may elect to do a creative-writing dissertation involving fiction, poetry, drama or nonfiction prose. Such a dissertation must also contain a substantial section of scholarly research related to the creative writing. The precise nature of the scholarly research component should be determined by the candidate in consultation with the dissertation committee and the Graduate Director. Candidates wishing to undertake such a dissertation must complete all Departmental requirements demanded for the research-oriented Ph.D. degree.

Scholarly Research Component (SRC)

The Scholarly Research Component (SRC) of the creative-writing dissertation is a separate section of the dissertation than the creative work. It involves substantial research and is written in the style of academic prose. It should be 15-20 pages and should cite at least 20 sources, some of which should be primary texts, and many of which should be from the peer-reviewed secondary literature. The topic must relate, in some way, to the topic, themes, ideas, or style of the creative portion of the dissertation; this relation should be stated in the Dissertation Proposal, which should include a section describing the student’s plans for the SRC. The SRC may be based on a seminar paper or other work the student has completed prior to the dissertation; but the research should be augmented, and the writing revised, per these guidelines. The SRC is a part of the dissertation, and as such will be included in the dissertation defense.

The SRC may take two general forms:

1.) An article, publishable in a peer-reviewed journal or collection, on a specific topic related to an author, movement, theoretical issue, taxonomic issue, etc. that has bearing on the creative portion. The quality of this article should be high enough that the manuscript could be submitted to a peer-reviewed publication, with a plausible chance of acceptance.

2.) A survey . This survey may take several different forms:

A survey of a particular aspect of the genre of the creative portion of the dissertation (stylistic, national, historical, etc.)
An introduction to the creative portion of the dissertation that explores the influences on, and the theoretical or philosophical foundations or implications of the creative work
An exploration of a particular technical problem or craft issue that is salient in the creative portion of the dissertation
If the creative portion of the dissertation includes the results of research (e.g., historical novel, documentary poetry, research-based creative nonfiction), a descriptive overview of the research undertaken already for the dissertation itself
A combination of the above, with the prior approval of the student’s dissertation director.

The dissertation committee will consist of at least four members—two “core” English faculty members, a third faculty member (usually from English), and one faculty member from a different department who serves as the Graduate Studies representative. The committee may include (with the Graduate Director’s approval) members from other departments and, with the approval of the University’s Graduate Council, members from outside the University. If a student wants to have a committee member from outside the university, or a person who is not in a full-time tenure-track professorship at KU, the student must contact the Graduate Secretary as early as possible. Applications for special graduate faculty status must be reviewed by the College and the Office of Graduate Studies. Requests for defense approval will not be approved unless all committee members currently hold either regular or special graduate faculty status.

The candidate’s preferences as to the membership of the dissertation committee will be carefully considered; the final decision, however, rests with the Department and with the Office of Graduate Studies. All dissertation committees must get approval from the Director of Graduate Studies before scheduling the final oral exam (defense). Furthermore, any changes in the make-up of the dissertation committee from the Review of the Dissertation Proposal committee must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Once the dissertation proposal has passed and the writing of the dissertation begins, membership of the dissertation committee should remain constant. However, under extraordinary circumstances, a student may request a substitution in, or a faculty member may ask to be dismissed from, the membership of the dissertation committee. Such requests must be approved, in writing, by the faculty member leaving the committee and by the Graduate Director.

If a student does not make progress during the dissertation-writing stage, and accumulates more than one “Limited Progress” and/or “No Progress” grade on their transcript, they will fall out of good standing in the department. For details on the consequences of falling out of good standing, see “Falling Out of Good Standing,” in General Department Policies and Best Practices

Final Oral Exam (Dissertation Defense)

When the dissertation has been tentatively accepted by the dissertation committee (not including the Graduate Studies Representative), the final oral examination will be held, on the recommendation of the Department. While the exam schedule is always contingent on student progress, in the first two weeks of the semester in which they intend to defend the dissertation, students should work with their committee chair and graduate program coordinator to schedule it.

Although the dissertation committee is responsible for certification of the candidate, any member of the graduate faculty may be present at the examination and participate in the questioning, and one examiner—the Graduate Studies Representative—must be from outside the Department. The Graduate Secretary can help students locate an appropriate Grad Studies Rep. The examination normally lasts no more than two hours. It is the obligation of the candidate to advise the Graduate Director that they plan to take the oral examination; this must be done at least one month before the date proposed for the examination.

At least three calendar weeks prior to the defense date, the student will submit the final draft of the dissertation to all the committee members (including the GSR) and inform the Graduate Program Coordinator. Failure to meet this deadline will necessitate rescheduling the defense. The final oral examination for the Ph.D. in English is, essentially, a defense of the dissertation. When it is passed, the dissertation itself is graded by the dissertation director, in consultation with the student’s committee; the student’s performance in the final examination (defense) is graded by the entire five-person committee

Students cannot bring snacks, drinks, treats, or gifts for committee members to the defense. Professors should avoid the appearance of favoritism that may occur if they bring treats to some student defenses but not others

These sets of attributes are adapted from the Graduate Learner Outcomes that are a part of our Assessment portfolio. “Honors” should only be given to dissertations that are rated “Outstanding” in all or most of the following categories:

Significant and innovative plot/structure/idea/focus. The writer clearly places plot/structure/idea/focus in context.
Thorough knowledge of literary traditions. Clear/flexible vision of the creative work produced in relation to those literary traditions.
Introduction/Afterword is clear, concise, and insightful. A detailed discussion of the implications of the project and future writing projects exists.
The creative dissertation reveals the doctoral candidate’s comprehensive understanding of poetics and/or aesthetic approach. The application of the aesthetic approach is innovative and convincing.
The creative dissertation represents original and sophisticated creative work.
The creative dissertation demonstrates thematic and/or aesthetic unity.

After much discussion about whether the “honors” designation assigned after the dissertation defense should be for the written product only, for the defense/discussion only, for both together, weighted equally, or eradicated altogether, the department voted to accept the Graduate Committee recommendation that “honors” only apply to the written dissertation. "Honors" will be given to dissertations that are rated "Outstanding" in all or most of the categories on the dissertation rubric.

Normally, the dissertation will present the results of the writer’s own research, carried on under the direction of the dissertation committee. This means that the candidate should be in regular contact with all members of the committee during the dissertation research and writing process, providing multiple drafts of chapters, or sections of chapters, according to the arrangements made between the student and each faculty member. Though accepted primarily for its scholarly merit rather than for its rhetorical qualities, the dissertation must be stylistically competent. The Department has accepted the MLA Handbook as the authority in matters of style. The writer may wish to consult also the Chicago Manual of Style and Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Dissertations, Theses, and Term Papers .

Naturally, both the student and the dissertation committee have responsibilities and obligations to each other concerning the submitting and returning of materials. The student should plan on working steadily on the dissertation; if they do so, they should expect from the dissertation committee a reasonably quick reading and assessment of material submitted.

Students preparing their dissertation should be showing chapters to their committee members as they go along, for feedback and revision suggestions. They should also meet periodically with committee members to assess their progress. Prior to scheduling a defense, the student is encouraged to ask committee members whether they feel that the student is ready to defend the dissertation. Ideally, the student should hold the defense only when they have consulted with committee members sufficiently to feel confident that they have revised the dissertation successfully to meet the expectations of all committee members.

Students should expect that they will need to revise each chapter at least once. This means that all chapters (including introduction and conclusion) are shown to committee members once, revised, then shown to committee members again in revised form to assess whether further revisions are needed, prior to the submitting of the final dissertation as a whole. It is not unusual for further revisions to be required and necessary after the second draft of a chapter; students should not therefore simply assume that a second draft is necessarily “final” and passing work.

If a substantial amount of work still needs to be completed or revised at the point that the dissertation defense is scheduled, such a defense date should be regarded as tentative, pending the successful completion, revision, and receipt of feedback on all work. Several weeks prior to the defense, students should consult closely with their dissertation director and committee members about whether the dissertation as a whole is in a final and defensible stage. A project is ready for defense when it is coherent, cohesive, well researched, engages in sophisticated analysis (in its entirety or in the critical introduction of creative dissertations), and makes a significant contribution to the field. In other words, it passes each of the categories laid out in the Dissertation Rubric.

If the dissertation has not clearly reached a final stage, the student and dissertation director are advised to reschedule the defense.

Prior Publication of the Doctoral Dissertation

Portions of the material written by the doctoral candidate may appear in article form before completion of the dissertation. Prior publication does not ensure the acceptance of the dissertation by the dissertation committee. Final acceptance of the dissertation is subject to the approval of the dissertation committee. Previously published material by other authors included in the dissertation must be properly documented.

Each student beyond the master’s degree should confer regularly with the Graduate Director regarding their progress toward the doctoral examination and the doctorate.

Doctoral students may take graduate courses outside the English Department if, in their opinion and that of the Graduate Director, acting on behalf of the Graduate Committee, those courses will be of value to them. Their taking such courses will not, of course, absolve them of the responsibility for meeting all the normal departmental and Graduate School requirements.

Doctoral students in creative writing are strongly encouraged to take formal literature classes in addition to forms classes. Formal literature classes, by providing training in literary analysis, theory, and/or literary history, will help to prepare students for doctoral exams (and future teaching at the college level).

FALL SEMESTER

GTAs take 2 courses (801 + one), teach 2 courses; GRAs take 3 courses.
Visit assigned advisor once a month to update on progress & perceptions. 1st-year advisors can assist with selecting classes for the Spring semester, solidifying and articulating a field of specialization, advice about publishing, conferences, professionalization issues, etc.

SPRING SEMESTER

GTAs take 2 courses (780/800/880 + one), teach 2 courses. GTAs also take ENGL 802 for 1 credit hour. GRAs take 3 courses.
Visit assigned advisor or DGS once during the semester; discuss best advisor choices for Year 2.

SUMMER SEMESTER

Enroll in Summer Institute if topic and/or methodology matches interests.
Consider conferences suited to your field and schedule; choose a local one for attendance in Year 2 and draft an Abstract for a conference paper (preferably with ideas/materials/ writing drawn from a seminar paper). Even if abstract is not accepted, you can attend the conference without the pressure of presenting.
Attend at least one conference to familiarize yourself with procedure, network with other grad students and scholars in your field, AND/OR present a paper.

FALL SEMESTER

Take 2 courses, teach 2 courses.
Visit advisor in person at least once during the semester.

WINTER BREAK

Begin revising one of your seminar papers/independent study projects/creative pieces for submission to a journal; research the journals most suited to placement of your piece.
Begin thinking about fields and texts for comprehensive examinations.
Choose an advisor to supervise you through the doctoral examination process.
Visit assigned 1st-year advisor in person at least once during the semester (at least to formally request doctoral exam supervision OR to notify that you are changing advisors).
Summer teaching, if eligible.
Continue revising paper/creative writing for submission to a journal.
Begin reading for comprehensive exams.
Attend one conference and present a paper. Apply for one-time funding for out-of-state travel from Graduate Studies .
Teach 2 courses; take 997 (exam prep).
Finalize comps list by end of September; begin drafting rationales.
Circulate the draft of your article/creative piece to your advisor, other faculty in the field, and/or advanced grad students in the field for suggestions.
Revise article/creative piece with feedback from readers.
Teach 2 courses; take 997 or 999 (dissertation hours). Enroll in 999 if you plan to take your comps this semester, even if you don’t take them until the last day of classes.
Take comps sometime between January and May.
Summer teaching, if available.
Submit article/creative work for publication.
Continuous enrollment after completing doctoral exam (full policy on p. 20)
Research deadlines for grant applications—note deadlines come early in the year.
Attend one conference and present a paper.
Teach 2 courses, take 999.
Compose dissertation proposal by November.
Schedule Review of Dissertation Proposal (RDP—formerly DPR).
Apply for at least one grant or fellowship, such as a departmental-level GRAship or dissertation fellowship. (Winning a full-year, non-teaching fellowship can cut down your years-to-degree to 5 ½, or even 5 years.)
Conduct research for and draft at least 1 dissertation chapter.
Conduct research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter.
Revise & resubmit journal article, if necessary.
Attend 1st round of job market meetings with Job Placement Advisor (JPA) to start drafting materials and thinking about the process.
Research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter, if teaching (1-2 chapters if not).
Visit dissertation chair and committee members in person at least once during the semester.
Research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter (1-2 chapters if not teaching).
Apply for a departmental grant or fellowship, or, if already held, try applying for one from outside the department, such as those offered by KU’s Hall Center for the Humanities or the Office of Graduate Studies. For a monthly list of funding opportunities , visit the Graduate Studies website.
Research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter.
Attend job market meetings with JPA in earnest.
Apply for external grants, research fellowships, postdoctoral positions with fall deadlines (previous fellowship applications, your dissertation proposal, and subsequent writing should provide a frame so that much of the application can be filled out with the “cut & paste” function).
Research and complete a draft of at least 1 dissertation chapter (1-2 if not teaching).
Visit dissertation chair and committee members in person at least once during the semester.
Polish dissertation chapters.
Apply for grants and fellowships with spring deadlines.
Defend dissertation.

Creative Writing Faculty

Associate Professor

Professor of English & Environmental Studies

Assistant Professor

Graduate Student Handbook

Department of English

College of humanities, main navigation, creative writing, about the creative writing program.

Our Creative Writing Program is vibrant and highly successful. We are committed on all levels to developing well-rounded practitioners with substantial backgrounds in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, digital writing practices, hybrid and other experimental forms, book arts, and literary history and theory. Our program hosts a dynamic reading series and opportunities for interaction with visiting authors and scholars.

Undergraduates are introduced to a variety of writing lives through small workshops and intensive focus on their work, while studying the larger ecology of contemporary publishing. In our graduate program, home to Quarterly West and Western Humanities Review , students intensify and deepen their investigation. We offer a modular MFA in Environmental Humanities, the American West, or Book Arts. Many graduates in our PhD Program, which Atlantic Monthly rated as among the top five in the country, publish widely in literary journals, place books before or soon after completing the program, win national and international awards, oversee and participate in a graduate reading series, and go on to find good academic positions.

Our renowned and aesthetically diverse faculty, whose honors include Guggenheim and NEA fellowships, Pushcart Prizes, the Berlin Prize, and other prestigious recognition of their creative work, scholarship, and teaching, includes Katharine Coles, Lindsey Drager, Michael Mejia, Jacqueline Osherow, Paisley Rekdal, and Rone Shavers. Additionally, each year the Creative Writing Program brings in a nationally recognized ESRR Distinguished Visiting Writer to teach graduate and undergraduate workshops and seminars for a half semester or longer.

Contact Information

Michael Mejia Director, Creative Writing Program [email protected]

Karli Sam Graduate Advisor [email protected]

Graduate Degrees in Creative Writing

We offer two graduate degrees in Creative Writing: An MFA and a PhD that prepares students to pursue careers as teachers of writing. The creative Writing faculty also sponsors an annual Guest Writers Series and the Utah Symposium in Science and Literature .

Graduate students also comprise the editorial staff of Quarterly West and Western Humanities Review , and host the monthly Working Dog readings.

Creative Writing MFA Information

CREATIVE WRITING MFA - Modular Track Information

CREATIVE WRITING PhD Information

English MFA - Creative Writing

The English MFA program in creative writing is small and selective. It gives students the opportunity to study literature, participate in intensive writing workshops, and work in a close community of writers. Studies may focus their literature coursework in any area of English or American literature.

Coursework Requirements

English mfa timeline.

Students will take a minimum of nine courses of at least three credit hours each:

Four creative writing workshops
English 7450: Narrative Theory and Practice or English 7460: Theory and Practice of Poetry (depending on the genre of the thesis)
Four other courses, including at least two literary history courses

MA Thesis & Thesis Defense

During their residence, MFA students are expected to work closely with members of the creative writing faculty and write book-length thesis of publishable quality —a novel, a collection of stories, or a collection of poems.

A complete draft of the thesis should be submitted to the committee chair at least three weeks before the desired defense date. After the thesis has been approved by the chair, a defense date is scheduled and cleared with the other committee members. When the date and time have been set, the student should inform the Graduate Advisor, who will schedule a room for the defense and post an announcement so that the public may attend.

Click on the link below to download a recommended, two-year timeline for an MFA in English from our department.

ENGLISH MFA TIMELINE

English MFA - Creative Writing (Modular Track)

The University of Utah Creative Writing Program offers a modular MFA program in poetry, fiction and nonfiction that allows students to take courses in Environmental Humanities, the History of the American West and Book Arts while completing a manuscript in the genre of their choice.

Funding Opportunities

About the modular track.

The modular MFA is the only MFA program in the nation that allows students to create courses of study that would capitalize on these three distinct areas, to use the historical, aesthetic and cultural knowledge gained from these subjects in their own creative writing. Upon entering the MFA program, students interested in the modular MFA would declare whether they wanted to pursue a single track (MFA with an Environmental Humanities emphasis, for instance) or a multidisciplinary track (MFA with an American West/Environmental Humanities emphasis).

While enrolled in a writing workshop of their choice each semester, students will also take a wide variety of graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses from departments across campus, including History, Communication, Art and Art History, Philosophy and Film, as well as English. These courses include topics such as Environmental Ethics, Film Directors of the American West, Bookbinding, Digital Arts, Global Environmental History, Videogame Studies, Sound Poetry, Artists’ Books, and Art and Architecture of the American West. Students are also encouraged to take our hybrid graduate writing workshop called Experimental Forms in which students combine poetry, fiction, nonfiction and new media in diverse and original ways.

Modular MFA Requirements

Our traditional MFA program requires nine graduate courses, plus six hours of thesis research. Of these nine courses, four are creative writing workshops, one is a theory and practice in the genre of the student’s thesis, and at least four courses are in literary history and special topics.

Our modular MFA program requires the same number of courses and hours of thesis research, but allows students in particular modules (or multi-disciplinary modules) to take courses outside English to fulfill their four literary history/special topics requirements.

Approved Modular Courses

Below is a list of possible approved courses regularly offered at the university in each of the three modules that modular MFA students might take. This list is not exhaustive; modular MFA students are encouraged to research their departments of interest to find other graduate and upper-division undergraduate courses that might apply. Courses not on this list must be pre-approved by both the Director of Graduate Studies and the Director of Creative Writing for the student to receive credit towards her modular MFA degree.

Environmental Humanities

EHUM 6900/005: Environmental Leadership/Orientation Week 0, Fall1 EHUM 101: Foundation in Environmental Humanities Fall1 EHUM 6103: Ecology of Residency (Taft-Nicholson Center - Summer) Fall2 EHUM 6105: EH Writing Seminar Spring1 EHUM 6804: Tertulia - Reading/discussion group - Fall1, Spring 1

Other courses of interest

Environmental Humanities encourages students to explore courses offered through the College of Humanities. Courses vary semester to semester, year to year. Courses of interest might include:

COMM 6360: Environmental Communication COMM 7200: Environmental Communication EHUM 6850: Issues in Environmental Humanities - topic varies according to semester ENGL 5980: Ecoctriticism ENGL 6240: Literature of the American West ENGL 6810: Post-humanist Theory & Practice ENGL 7700: Seminar in American Studies ENGL 7850: Digital Humanities HIST 6380: US Environmental History HIST 7670: Colloquium in Environmental History PHIL 5530: Environmental Philosophy PHIL 6520: Advanced Bioethics

American West

ENGL 6200: Introduction to American Studies ENGL 7700: Special Topics in American Studies ARCH 6231: Art and Architecture of the American West HIST 6910: Special Studies in American History HIST 7620: Colloquium in the History of the American West HIST 7870: Colloquium in the American West FILM 7870: Special Topics in American West Film and Filmmakers

Book Arts / Publishing / New Media

ENGL 7050: Experimental Forms ENGL 7810: Publications Workshop: Lit and American Studies ENGL 6680, 7740 or 7720 (whichever number applies):

*Seminar in the Theory and Practice of New Media Writing *New Media and Poetry *Sound Poetry *Critical Studies in Artists’ Books

ARCH 6052: Digital Media ART 3360: Letterpress Printing ART 3365: Bookbinding ART 3630: Digital Studio ART 4060-065-070: Nonmajor Letterpress II ART 4075: Nonmajor bookbinding III ART 4090: Nonmajor Artist’s Books COMM 6520: Interactive Narrative COMM 6550: Digital Imaging COMM 6640: Comm Tech and Culture COMM 6650: Videogames Studies COMM 6670: Activism & New Media COMM 6680: Computer Mediated Communication COMM 6690: New Media, Special Topics COMM 7640: New Media, Special Topics

Students interested in pursuing the Modular MFA have the option of applying or being considered for a number of fellowship opportunities. Students primarily interested in Environmental Humanities will be considered for a half-teaching fellowship that will cover half their tuition expenses and fees. Students interested in the American West and/or Book Arts/New Media studies will be eligible to apply for The Center for American West/ J.W. Marriott Special Collections Fellowships after they have been accepted into the MFA program. These fellowships will require that students work as archivists and transcribers in one of four areas: Science and Technology in the West, Multimedia Archives of the West, Utah Oral Histories, and Utah Outdoor Recreation Oral Histories.

Students who are selected for one of these fellowships will receive first-year funding for tuition and fees of up to $12,400 with the possibility of the same amount of funding for a second year. Students who receive the Center for American West/J.W. Marriott Special Collections Fellowship will also be given credit for a one-credit independent study course in Archival Research that will be noted on their transcripts.

Publishing internships also may be made available with FC2, Eclipse, University of Utah Press, Red Butte Press/Book Arts, and other local journals and presses. Credit for internships may fall under the heading of ENGL 7810, the publications workshops for Literature and American Studies.

English PhD - Creative Writing

The English PhD with a specialization in Creative Writing is neither a fine arts degree nor simply a traditional literature PhD with a creative dissertation. The program is designed to help the student become a better writer, as well as a writer who knows the history of his or her chosen genre and who is aware of the critical theory relevant to it.

The PhD is generally recognized as a writer's best preparation for a teaching career at the college or university level. Many colleges cannot afford to hire someone to teach only creative writing; the PhD is strong evidence that the writer can also teach literature courses and that he or she can take a full and active part in the academic community.

Qualifying Examinations

English PhD Timeline

Students will take ten courses of at least three credits each:

English 6480: Introduction to Critical Theory
At least three workshops (one in a genre other than the dissertation is recommended)
At least three courses in literary history, including one covering literature before 1700 and one covering literature between 1700 and 1900
English 7450: Narrative Theory and Practice or English 7460: Theory and Practice of Poetry (depending on the genre of the dissertation)
One or two electives (depending on the number of workshops taken; one of these courses may be taken in a department other than English, with the prior approval of the Director of Graduate Studies)

In creative writing, exams focus on the genre (poetry or prose) of the student’s dissertation. Students will be examined in four fields; lists in each field normally include 25-30 major works or their equivalent. Students must complete all required coursework and satisfy the language requirement before scheduling their qualifying exams. Examination lists will be devised by students in consultation with the members of their committee.

The genre from its beginnings until the end of the nineteenth century
The genre from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present
Topics or themes are devised in consultation with the student’s supervisory committee, especially the committee chair, and might focus on specific literary, generic, or thematic areas (e.g., history of lyric, gothic literature, graphic novels, the literature of war, queer literature, etc.) or a cultural studies field or otherwise interdisciplinary area (e.g., American studies, digital humanities, film studies, race/ethnic studies, religious studies, gender/sexuality studies, art history, etc.).
This list will focus on theoretical questions relevant to the genre or the dissertation.

English Creative PhD Timeline

Click on the link below to download a recommended, two-year timeline for a Creative Writing PhD in English from our department.

ENGLISH Creative Writing PhD TIMELINE

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Home / About / About the PhD Creative/Critical Writing Concentration

About the PhD Creative/Critical Writing Concentration

UC Santa Cruz offers a concentration in Creative/Critical Writing for Literature Ph.D. students. This is an individualized course of study in which students can write a creative dissertation with a critical introduction or a cross-genre creative/critical project. Our students have completed speculative novels, collections of poems and personal essays, experimental memoirs, biographies, cross-genre work and translations of works of poetry and prose. Descriptions of previous qualifying exam and dissertation topics can be found with student bios here .

In addition to taking critical literature courses, entering students take four graduate creative/critical writing classes (two “Creative Writing Studio” courses and two “Methods and Materials” courses taught by creative writing faculty ). The “Creative Writing Studio” is a mixed-genre class that moves beyond the classic workshop mode to give students time to focus on their creative work in a supportive community. The “Methods and Materials” class is a seminar that examines one form, topic, and/or theme. Students can respond creatively, critically or creative/critically. Past classes have focused on autobiographical experiments, race and the lyric essay, the artist’s statement, and James Baldwin’s sentences.

The concentration works to create community while at the same time gives our students opportunities to join with creative and critical colleagues within and beyond the department and division. There are opportunities for internships, fellowships, and graduate students often introduce and meet with writers through the Living Writers Series . Graduate students can also pursue designated emphases in programs and departments such as Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Education, Feminist Studies, History of Consciousness, Latin American and Latino Studies, Philosophy, Politics, Sociology, and the History of Art and Visual Culture. (A full listing of programs and departments offering a Designated Emphasis can be found here .)

The program also offers opportunities for pedagogical training. Graduate students in the Creative/Critical Writing Concentration have the opportunity to teach undergraduate introductory and intermediate creative writing courses annually.

Although our program is fairly new, UCSC has a rich history of Creative/Critical writers and teachers, such as George Hitchcock, bell hooks, Harriet Mullen, Gloria Anzaldua, Nathaniel Mackey, Angela Davis, Karen Tei Yamashita, and Peter Gizzi.

Graduate Students Describe the Program:

"The Creative/Critical Program facilitates a deep exploration of the critical and intellectual apparatuses involved in the creative process. Prospective students should prepare to excavate their creative practice and process to see how their work speaks to broader critical conversations and how to deepen the questions their work asks and the questions they ask of their work and process. We interrogate connections between ourselves, our work, and the world around us.”
“ What I love about the C/C program, and the UCSC literature department more broadly, is the way it works to break down barriers between the creative and the critical--not just bringing the critical into the creative, but the creative into the critical. It has both helped me to bring a more personal approach--a personality--to my critical writing and more complex ideas to my creative writing.”
“ We practice thinking both creatively and critically and those are often two siloed modes of thinking that we bring together.”
“ In the Graduate Creative/Critical Writing Concentration I've gained mentors, colleagues, and friends who are committed to innovation and pushing the limits of critical and creative writing as we know it. The community has welcomed me with open arms and emboldened me to develop my craft beyond what I thought was possible in literature. Joining this program out of an M.F.A. was the best thing I could have done for my creative practice and my personal and professional development.”

What are you looking for?

Suggested search, phd in creative writing & literature, at home in usc’s department of english,.

the Ph.D. in CREATIVE WRITING & LITERATURE PROGRAM is one of the few dual Ph.D. programs in the country that weaves the disciplines of literature and creative work into a single educational experience. Students complete coursework in both creative writing and literature. The dissertation project is comprised of creative and critical manuscripts, both of which are essential for completion of the degree.

USC CREATIVE WRITING FACULTY include recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, Guggenheim Fellowships, the National Book Award, National Endowment for the Arts grants, Pushcart Prizes and other prestigious recognitions for their exemplary writing and dedication to their creative and scholarly work. As professors, the faculty are committed to developing innovative seminars and guiding students in the cultivation of their abilities as writers and scholars. Each incoming student is assigned a faculty mentor, with whom the student will work closely during their years at USC. While Creative Writing faculty teach critical courses from time to time, most of these literature and theory-based seminars are led by the faculty in the Department of English, all of whom are impressively accomplished scholars who are devoted to the scholarly growth of their graduate students.

Our program prizes INTERDISCIPLINARY SCHOLARSHIP, so students are encouraged to cultivate their diverse interests with courses outside of the English Department. Many students choose to pursue a complimentary graduate certificate concurrent with the Ph.D. degree. The Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences offers graduate certificate programs in Gender Studies, Visual Studies, East Asian Studies and Visual Anthropology, among others.

IN ADDITION TO COURSEWORK, students have the opportunity to participate in Ph.D. student-run projects such as The Loudest Voice, a reading series, and Gold Line Press , a publisher of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry chapbooks.

Though known for its competitive sports teams, USC also organizes an array of stimulating events throughout the year, including the English Department’s Boudreaux Visiting Writers Series and Frank N. Magill Poetry Series, as well as the University-wide Visions & Voices series, which features diverse and dynamic performances, lectures, and discussions that extend the arts and humanities beyond the classroom.

USC also hosts the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books — one of the largest literary events in the nation. USC itself is located in the heart of beautiful Los Angeles, an international city with a vibrant arts scene, just miles from the beach or hiking trails; students will never be at a loss for something to do.

ADMISSION is extremely competitive: the program accepts 2 or 3 writers per genre every year from hundreds of applicants. All incoming students receive five years of guaranteed funding — three years of fellowship and two of teaching assistantship. Fellowship years are granted during the first, second, and fourth years of study. Funding packages also cover full tuition remission and health insurance.

OUR STUDENTS and ALUMNI have published book-length works and collections with Alice James Books, Anhinga Press, Black Lawrence Press, Copper Canyon Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Hogarth, Northwestern University Press, Other Press, Penguin, Red Hen Press, Saturnalia, Siglio Press, Slope Editions, Tebot Bach, Ugly Duckling Presse, University of Iowa Press, and White Pine Press, among others. Their books, poems, stories, and essays have garnered an impressive array of accolades.

For information concerning admission, please visit our Application page.

Many questions concerning the Creative Writing & Literature Program are answered on our FAQ page.

If you do not find the information you are looking for on our website, please feel free to contact us.

Ph.D. in Creative Writing & Literature

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Los Angeles, CA 90089-0354

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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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UC grads Precious Randall on left and Corin Manning on right stand outside Fifth Third Arena wearing commencement cap and gown holding their diplomas.

Scholarship success: Two UC grads shine at spring commencement

Cech grads earn degrees and praise for their journeys supported by scholarships.

In a testament to the transformative power of education and financial support, Precious Randall and Corin Manning, recent graduates of the University of Cincinnati, have emerged as shining examples of success.

Armed with scholarships that paved their paths through college, they received bachelor’s degrees from the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services during the spring commencement ceremonies, marking the culmination of years of dedication and hard work.

But what sets Randall and Manning apart is not just their academic prowess; it's the remarkable journey they undertook to reach this milestone, a journey made possible by scholarships that paved their paths to success.

Teaching trajectory

Precious Randall proudly displays her customized mortar board at her UC commencement ceremony. Photo Chris Radcliffe for UC Foundation

Before earning her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, graduating summa cum laude, Randall received the Charles A. Sallie and Charlene A. Tucker Scholarship , helping to hone her skills toward a career as a PreK-5th grade elementary school teacher. “UC’s investment in my education through the scholarship helped me achieve my dream of becoming a teacher,” says Randall.

As a student of UC’s Elementary Education program, Randall successfully achieved leadership roles in a variety of organizations on and off campus, such as serving as president of the Omicron chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

Randall’s leadership skills began as a bioscience student in Columbus before transferring to UC, eventually guiding her toward a future as an elementary school educator. "UC's investment in my education helped me gain the confidence to switch majors and pursue studies in teaching young students," Randall remarked.

Because her teaching classes were small, intimate and cohort based, as opposed to 500 students in her bioscience classes, Randall collaborated much more easily with her student cohorts, eventually calling themselves “teacher besties.”

Precious Randall while president of the Omicron chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. photo/provided

As part of her student-teaching practicums, Randall worked in UC’s Arlitt Child Development Center , Princeton City Schools and Fairfield South Elementary. “Because I enjoyed my practicum and internships while attending UC, it has inspired me to come back and teach in one of the districts where I had my teaching experience,” she adds.

Already confident in her leadership roles, Randall affirms that the Charles A. Sallie and Charlene A. Tucker Scholarship helped inspire her to, “Always give back."

Through UC’s Lead Beyond Incorporated and the Warren Bennis Leadership Institute , Randall was accepted into the Women in Leadership Development Program. This semester-long engagement led to spearheading her capstone initiative — an innovative, user-friendly app designed to streamline UC’s complex CampusLINK navigation process.

Beyond the classroom, Randall seized other opportunities to lead and inspire. From serving as an undergraduate admissions student ambassador to mentoring first-year students through the Brothers and Sisters Excelling ( B.A.S.E. ) program, her impact extended far beyond campus boundaries.

“Throughout my lifetime, my family has supported me in every decision I’ve made. Because of my family, teachers and the valuable help from my scholarships, I have achieved so much more,” Randall beams with pride.

Double diplomas

Corin Manning's customized mortar board let's the world know she is 'two degrees hotter.' Photo/Chris Radcliffe for UC Foundation

Meanwhile, Manning's journey was propelled by the prestigious Darwin T. Turner Scholarship .

As an IT student, Manning also applied for the IT Accelerated Program , receiving acceptance into the MBA track in her first year. “But I started the evening classes toward an MBA in my third year, finishing both degrees in five years,” states Manning.

“And because I was already offered the Darwin T. Turner Scholarship, that sealed the deal to attend UC,” affirms Manning. “The scholarship went toward both my undergraduate and master’s tuition, which I couldn’t have achieved without that critical funding.”

Among several campus leadership positions, Manning served as co-president of Women in Technology, president of IT Proud and officer for CECH Student Ambassadors . In addition, Manning was a student success coach for the School of IT and held memberships in the National Society of Leadership and Success and the National Alpha Lambda Delta honor society.

Corin Manning after receiving her bachelor's degree in UC's spring 2024 commencement. Photo Chris Radcliffe for UC Foundation

Corin Manning after receiving her master's degree in UC's spring 2024 commencement. Photo/Corin Manning

Manning’s path toward IT started as a high school student. “I got involved in a coding camp in Cleveland for young Black girls called IndeedWeCode. This eventually led to an internship at Rockwell Automation in their Engineering Pathways Program, which seeks out high schoolers and college students heading toward a STEM path,” says Manning. “Being self-motivated as an only child, I was determined to get involved in STEM activities, and owe much of my educational success to my mom who was always supportive through the whole process.”

Manning remained at Rockwell, a global leader in industrial automation, throughout her college co-ops. There, she worked on various software products.

After accepting a full-time position at Rockwell starting in May, Manning had a job in hand even before she graduated. “In my new career with Rockwell, I’ll continue working on industry-leading commercial software.”

Corin Manning was honored with the 2024 Student Trailblazer Award at the Onyx & Ruby Gala. Photo/Corin Manning

From her early immersion in high school coding camps to her leadership roles in UC campus organizations, Manning's path was guided by a passion for technology and a drive for success. Her accolades, including the 2024 Student Trailblazer award at the 10th Annual Onyx & Ruby Gala and the Outstanding BS-IT Student Award, underscore her dedication to academic excellence and community engagement.

For Randall, the Charles A. Sallie and Charlene A. Tucker scholarship helped propel and insire her to pursue her dream of becoming an elementary school teacher. Manning, fueled by her Darwin T. Turner Scholarship, embarked on a journey that led her to excel in both IT and business realms, culminating in a remarkable achievement of two degrees in five years.

As they begin the next chapter of their lives — armed with degrees in one hand and careers in the other — their success serves as a testament to the enduring impact of education and scholarship opportunities that have helped them realize their dreams.

Featured image at top: New UC grads from left, Precious Randall and Corin Manning stand outside UC's Fifth Third Arena. Photo/ Chris Radcliffe for UC Foundation

With its focus on innovation and impact, Next, Now: The Campaign for Cincinnati is where ambition meets action. At the University of Cincinnati and UC Health, we’re driven by next; thinking bolder and dreaming bigger to create the tomorrow we envision, today. Learn more at nextnow.uc.edu .

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Celebrating the Spring 2024 MFA Graduates

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COMMENTS

PhD in Creative Writing
Every PhD student has the opportunity to teach creative writing, with many also teaching literature classes. Most students are funded by teaching, with two or three at a time funded by editorial work at The Cincinnati Review or Acre Books, and others funded in their dissertation year by college- or university-level fellowships.
UC Creative Writing PhD Ranks Eighth in the US
University of Cincinnati. for their PhD in creative writing, a doctoral program that ranks number eight in the country, according to Poets & Writers magazine. We re thrilled to achieve this national recognition, says Department Head Russel Durst. I attribute our success in large part to the accomplishments of the faculty, who in recent years ...
University of Cincinnati
Fifth-year support, while not guaranteed, has generally been available to interested students in the form of student lecturerships, which carry a 2-2 load. The Creative Writing PhD at the University of Cincinnati has maintained over the last decade more than a 75% placement rate into full-time academic jobs for its doctoral graduates.
University of Cincinnati Fully Funded PhD in Creative Writing
The University of Cincinnati based in Cincinnati, Ohio offers a four-year course fully funded PhD in Creative Writing. Two years of course work that includes workshops, forms classes, pedagogical training, literature, and theory, students take exams in two areas. Recent examples of the genre area include Comic Fiction, History of the Love Lyric ...
University of Cincinnati
Creative Writing is a concentration offered under the writing studies major at University of Cincinnati - Main Campus. We've pulled together some essential information you should know about the doctor's degree program in creative writing, including how many students graduate each year, the ethnic diversity of these students, whether or not the degree is offered online, and more.
Doctoral student's leadership skills are pure poetry
As a first-generation college graduate, Doyle recently earned a PhD in English literature and creative writing through UC's Department of English and Comparative Literature and is being honored with UC's 2019 Presidential Medal of Graduate Student Excellence. Two graduate medals were awarded this year.The other awardee is Courtney Giannini, who is receiving a doctoral degree from the ...
Fully Funded PhD Programs in Creative Writing
University of Cincinnati, PhD in Creative Writing (Cincinnati, OH): Every Ph.D. student has the opportunity to teach creative writing, with many also teaching literature classes. Most students are funded by teaching, with two or three at a time funded by editorial work at The Cincinnati Review, and others funded in their dissertation year by ...
University of Cincinnati Creative Writing
University of Cincinnati Creative Writing, Cincinnati. 354 likes. The Creative Writing Program at the University of Cincinnati offers the M.A. and Ph.D. in Creative Writing Fiction, Poetry, and...
Fully Funded PhD in Creative Writing at University of Cincinnati
PhD Funding Coverage. The University of Cincinnati is committed to providing financial support to Ph.D. students in Creative Writing. Most students in the program receive funding through teaching opportunities. As part of the program, every Ph.D. student has the chance to teach creative writing, and many also engage in teaching literature classes.
Fully Funded PhD in Creative Writing at University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides a four-year PhD program in Creative Writing that is completely funded. Students take tests in two categories after two years of course work that includes workshops, forms classes, pedagogical training, literature, and theory. Recent genre examples include Comic Fiction, the History of ...
Creative Writing at University of Cincinnati
During the 2020-2021 academic year, University of Cincinnati - Main Campus handed out 27 bachelor's degrees in creative writing. This is an increase of 42% over the previous year when 19 degrees were handed out. In 2021, 2 students received their master's degree in creative writing from UC. This makes it the #198 most popular school for ...
Graduate Funding
Graduate and professional students often seek out or are provided financial assistance from academic departments. This assistance can come in the form of a scholarship, assistantship or fellowship or may be called a stipend or award. ... University of Cincinnati PO Box 210125 Cincinnati OH 45221-0125 Enrollment Services 513-556-1000 ...
PhD Creative Writing
The University of Kansas' Graduate Program in Creative Writing also offers an M.F.A degree. Opportunities. A GTA appointment includes a tuition waiver for ten semesters plus a competitive stipend. In the first year, GTA appointees teach English 101 (first year composition) and English 102 (a required reading and writing course).
Creative Writing
Our Creative Writing Program is vibrant and highly successful. We are committed on all levels to developing well-rounded practitioners with substantial backgrounds in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, digital writing practices, hybrid and other experimental forms, book arts, and literary history and theory. Our program hosts a dynamic reading series ...
About the PhD Creative/Critical Writing Concentration
The "Creative Writing Studio" is a mixed-genre class that moves beyond the classic workshop mode to give students time to focus on their creative work in a supportive community. The "Methods and Materials" class is a seminar that examines one form, topic, and/or theme. Students can respond creatively, critically or creative/critically.
PDF Overview of the PhD in Literature and Creative Writing
Overview of the PhD in Creative Writing and Literature. Fall. Spring. Year One. Take two 3-hour courses, plus Practicum (2 hours) and the Professionalization Seminar (1 hour) Teach one composition course. You're guaranteed one creative writing course next year; by December 1, turn in an application for any additional CW or literature courses ...
Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature
Potential applicants may contact: Janalynn Bliss, Graduate Coordinator. Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature. Department of English. Taper Hall 431. University of Southern California. University Park Campus. Los Angeles, CA 90089-0354. (213) 821-0477.
- PhD in Creative Writing & Literature
the Ph.D. in CREATIVE WRITING & LITERATURE PROGRAM is one of the few dual Ph.D. programs in the country that weaves the disciplines of literature and creative work into a single educational experience. Students complete coursework in both creative writing and literature. The dissertation project is comprised of creative and critical manuscripts ...
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).
Scholarships help two UC grads shine at spring commencement
In a testament to the transformative power of education and financial support, Precious Randall and Corin Manning, recent graduates of the University of Cincinnati, have emerged as shining examples of success. Each graduated with bachelor's degrees from CECH in spring of 2024, but what sets them apart is not just their academic prowess; it's their remarkable journey made possible by ...
Celebrating the Spring 2024 MFA Graduates
On Thursday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Milano Reading Room of the Downtown University Library, the third-year MFAs held their graduation reading to the public. It was a privilege to listen to the moving work produced by the 2024 MFA cohort.

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