University of Virginia

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA

http://creativewriting.virginia.edu/

We’re a small program, accepting only five fiction writers and five poets each year. Given our application numbers, this small cohort makes us one of the most competitive application pools among all MFA programs. After our students arrive, we fund them equally, which promotes a collegial, supportive workshop environment. None of our students teach in their first year; they teach one section of creative writing each semester of their second year, in courses where they have wide latitude in selecting readings and teaching content and methods. We are one of only five universities to offer an annual $10,000 Henfield Prize in fiction.

Degrees Offered

MFA

Genres

Fiction, Poetry

Residency type

Full

Program length

Three fully funded years.

Financial Aid

All our students receive the same amount of funding and they do not have to re-compete in their second or third year.

Teaching opportunities

In their second year, all of our students teach a 1/1 load of creative writing in poetry or fiction and the courses are largely of their own design. In a third year, our students teach a 2/2 load and primarily in first-year undergraduate writing (composition).

Editorial opportunities

Our MFA program is also the home of Meridian, a semiannual literary magazine edited by our graduate students and distributed nationally. Meridian publishes twice a year, in January and May. The journal features outstanding fiction, poetry, and nonfiction from both emerging and established writers, and work from Meridian contributors has gone on for inclusion in Best American Poetry, Best American Essays, New Stories from the South, and the Pushcart anthology.

Cross-genre study

Limited. Our MFAs do not sit in the other genre’s workshops, but there are opportunities to take additional graduate-level workshops in different genres, and from the same core writing faculty.

Graduates

Send questions, comments and corrections to info@creativewritingmfa.info.

Disclaimer: No endorsement of these ratings should be implied by the writers and writing programs listed on this site, or by the editors and publishers of Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology.