Best Mfa Creative Writing Programs 2021

Creative Writing M.F.A.

This extremely well-funded two-year creative writing M.F.A. program, whose home is the Jackson Center for Creative Writing, emphasizes an individualized approach. To the 20-24 Creative Writing M.F.A. students enrolled in the program, books are essential nourishment, and reading them is inextricable from writing them.

The creative writing (M.F.A.) students, like the professors, are unusually committed to a diversity of voices and literatures, contemporary and across the ages. They work successfully in and across every genre, including poetry, short fiction, novels, and creative nonfiction.

Students and professors at Hollins enjoy an intimate, supportive community with amazing guest readers and opportunities for editorial experience, introducing and giving public readings, writing-based service work in the community, travel and research funding, and time to read and write. In addition, our beautiful location in Roanoke, Virginia offers an excellent setting to recharge, with the city's small-scale, bustling culture, where it's easy to explore the wildness of the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains right from your door.

Degrees Offered

Creative Writing M.F.A.

This two-year creative writing M.F.A. program, whose home is the Jackson Center for Creative Writing, emphasizes an individualized approach. The 24 students enrolled in the program have a strong interest in and aptitude for writing and literary study. They work successfully in every genre, including poetry, short fiction, novels, and creative nonfiction.

A National Reputation

The Hollins creative writing M.F.A. program has one of the highest publishing records of any graduate school in the country. Among the many outstanding writers who have graduated from the creative writing program are:

Pulitzer Prize winners Annie Dillard, Henry Taylor, and Natasha Trethewey
Novelists and story writers Madison Smartt Bell, Kiran Desai, Tony D'Souza, David Huddle, Adam Ross, and Jill McCorkle
Poets and essayists Adrian Blevins, Jenny Boully, Scott Cairns, Wyn Cooper, Kevin Prufer, and Mary Ruefle
Novelists and memoirists Richard McCann and Karen Salyer McElmurray
Photographer Sally Mann
Filmmaker George Butler
Non-fiction author Beth Macy

Our Faculty

Our professors don't just teach — they create. They're accomplished writers in their own fields — novelists, poets, essayists, and so much more. If we teach you anything, it's to be you. Learning from professionals who have been there helps you grow that much more.

"We do not really teach creative writing. We do not produce writers who write a certain way. We do provide the guidance of professionals, and we do everything we can to make the program what the students here need."

– R.H.W. Dillard, professor of English

A family affair

Kelly Stephenson M.F.A. '20 finished Hollins' graduate program in creative writing this spring, while his daughter Clare (class of 2023) completed her first year as an undergraduate.

Kelly's journey

"Pulitzer U"

The Roanoker magazine says: "The Roanoke Valley has a history of being writer-friendly, primarily because of the presence of Hollins University, which has been called 'Pulitzer U.' Annie Dillard, Henry Taylor, and most recently, U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey have won the U.S.'s top writing prize."

Meet the director

Thorpe Moeckel

Thorpe Moeckel, director of the Jackson Center for Creative Writing; associate professor of English; M.F.A., University of Virginia; B.A., Bowdoin College

His most recent book isDown by the Eno, Down by the Haw: A Wonder Almanac. His poetry books includeArcadia Road, Venison,Odd Botany, andMaking a Map of the River. Chapbooks includeMeltlines, The Guessing Land, andOff Owl's Head.Watershed Days: Adventures (a Little Thorny & Familiar) in the Home Range, a work of nonfiction, was published in 2015. His writings appear regularly in journals, and selections are featured in several anthologies. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and Jacob K. Javits, Sustainable Arts, and Henry Hoyns fellowships, and was awarded the George Garrett New Writing Award from The Fellowship of Southern Writers. Forthcoming in 2020 is True as True Can Be, a middle grade novel.

Contact Thorpe Moeckel >