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This is the preliminary (or launch) version of the 2024-2025 VCU Bulletin. We may add courses that expose our students to cutting-edge content and transformative learning. We may also add content to the general education program that focuses on racial literacy and a racial literacy graduation requirement, and may receive notification of additional program approvals after the launch. The final edition and full PDF version will include these updates and will be available in August prior to the beginning of the fall semester.

Program goals

Our selective and academically rigorous 48-credit-hour, three-year program is designed to provide talented writers with the opportunity to work closely with both outstanding faculty and gifted peers to strengthen their craft, develop their literary aesthetics, enrich their understanding of existing traditions as well as compositional possibilities, and to participate actively in the life of the literary community at large.

The primary areas of study are poetry and fiction, and admission is highly competitive. In addition to the poetry and fiction workshops, there are courses available that focus on writing drama, nonfiction and screenplays, as well as courses that provide practical experience in editing.

Student learning outcomes

Students in the M.F.A. in Creative Writing program will:

• Develop and refine their individual writerly voices, produce literary work of a high quality and demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of their own aesthetics, as well as the literary models and cultural sources of those aesthetics
• Actively engage in a wider literary culture and community at the local, regional, national or international level
• Develop constructive workshop practices and demonstrate the ability to read closely and respond perceptively and critically to the writing of their fellow M.F.A. students
• Develop an advanced comprehension of editing and revision techniques and strategies, which include synthesizing challenges, advice and critiques from professors and fellow M.F.A. students
• Develop, hone and articulate a keen sense of their artistic and career goals

Student learning outcomes specific to poetry

• Demonstrate a skillful use or knowledge of major poetic devices, such as metaphor, imagery, lineation, persona, types of rhythm, rhyme and other sonic effect.
• Demonstrate the use or knowledge of classic poetic forms, such as the sonnet, the ode and the elegy, as well as other contemporary, experimental or avant-garde forms.
• In a statement of purpose or aesthetics that is part of their thesis manuscript, as well as in an exit interview/ thesis defense, appraise and locate their own work within literary and cultural contexts

VCU Graduate Bulletin, VCU Graduate School and general academic policies and regulations for all graduate students in all graduate programs

The VCU Graduate Bulletin website documents the official admission and academic rules and regulations that govern graduate education for all graduate programs at the university. These policies are established by the graduate faculty of the university through their elected representatives to the University Graduate Council.

It is the responsibility of all graduate students, both on- and off-campus, to be familiar with the VCU Graduate Bulletin as well as the Graduate School website and academic regulations in individual school and department publications and on program websites. However, in all cases, the official policies and procedures of the University Graduate Council, as published on the VCU Graduate Bulletin and Graduate School websites, take precedence over individual program policies and guidelines.

Visit the academic regulations section for additional information on academic regulations for graduate students.

Degree candidacy requirements

A graduate student admitted to a program or concentration requiring a final research project, work of art, thesis or dissertation, must qualify for continuing master’s or doctoral status according to the degree candidacy requirements of the student’s graduate program. Admission to degree candidacy, if applicable, is a formal statement by the graduate student’s faculty regarding the student’s academic achievements and the student’s readiness to proceed to the final research phase of the degree program.

Graduate students and program directors should refer to the following degree candidacy policy as published in the VCU Graduate Bulletin for complete information and instructions.

Visit the academic regulations section for additional information on degree candidacy requirements.

Graduation requirements

As graduate students approach the end of their academic programs and the final semester of matriculation, they must make formal application to graduate. No degrees will be conferred until the application to graduate has been finalized.

Graduate students and program directors should refer to the following graduation requirements as published in the Graduate Bulletin for a complete list of instructions and a graduation checklist.

Visit the academic regulations section for additional information on graduation requirements.

Other information

The  M.F.A. Guide  may be accessed online.

Apply online today.

Admission requirements

Special requirement.

• Portfolio (see below)

The Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program is designed to attract students from diverse undergraduate backgrounds who are writers of promise. Students may select one of the following genres their primary area of study: poetry, fiction or nonfiction; however, they may also pursue a dual genre tract. 

In addition to the  general admission requirements of the VCU Graduate School , the following requirements represent the minimum acceptable standards for admission:

• A portfolio of promising poetry, fiction or nonfiction, possibly with drama (as a minimum, approximately eight to 10 poems, or 20 or more pages of fiction or nonfiction, or some combination of these; in all cases, applicants should submit only their strongest creative writing samples) to be submitted directly to the M.F.A. program
• Three recommendations from persons who are qualified to give information concerning the applicant’s probable success in graduate school, especially in a creative writing program
• A scholastic record that is indicative of the applicant’s ability to pursue a graduate degree successfully
• A baccalaureate degree or its equivalent from an accredited institution

Degree requirements

In addition to general VCU Graduate School graduation requirements , students are required to complete course work in core and elective courses and to conduct significant research.

• Credit hour requirements: Students in the M.F.A. in Creative Writing program are required to earn a minimum of 48 graduate-level credit hours beyond the baccalaureate. At least half of the credit hours presented for graduation must be at the 600 level or higher.
• Other requirements: Beyond the required courses, students should select elective courses, in conjunction with the program director or their thesis advisers, which are appropriate to their aims and interests. The thesis work gives students the opportunity to produce manuscripts of publishable quality. Course work also is available in the techniques of teaching creative writing, and the program is flexible enough to include studies undertaken in other departments of the university as well, including the departments of Art History, Theatre and Philosophy and the Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture.

Curriculum requirements

The minimum total of graduate credit hours required for this degree is 48.

Contact David Wojahn Professor and graduate program director [email protected] (804) 828-4462

Additional contact Thom Didato Graduate programs adviser, Department of English [email protected] (804) 828-1329

Program website: english.vcu.edu/mfa

Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia 23284 Phone: (804) 828-0100 [email protected]

All Bulletins © 2024-2025 Virginia Commonwealth University Fri Dec 29 2023 09:22:27 GMT-0600 (CST)

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Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia, united states.

Building upon its recent 30th anniversary, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Master of Fine Arts in creative writing continues to celebrate its ongoing achievements and programmatic developments, including:

* Expanded creative nonfiction/CNF course offerings and created a “Dual Genre” track allowing our MFA students to formally add CNF to their academic concentrations.

* Small MFA workshop size. Excellent 3 to 1 student to faculty ratio. Currently: 9 full-time MFA faculty, approximately 27 graduate students.

* Every one of the nine full-time faculty members has a new or forthcoming book publication.

* New faculty hires in both fiction and creative nonfiction, including writers Hanna Pylvainen, Sonja Livingston, and Lina Maria Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas.

* Graduate assistantship stipends have greatly increased, and now range from $12,500 up to $24,000 a year (plus tuition waiver). All current full-time enrolled students are funded.

* Assistantships not only offer teaching opportunities in composition and expository writing, but also undergraduate creative writing classes as well.

* Assistantship assignments also include opportunity to coordinate VCU’s national literary awards, including the Cabell First Novelist, Levis Reading Prize, and Tarumoto Prize in short fiction.

* Offered new coursework in collaborative comic/graphic novelist pairing up MFA students with artists from VCU’s acclaimed School of the Arts.

* Additional and regular offerings in screenwriting, form and theory coursework, and literary editing/publishing seminars.

* Newly established travel stipends for MFA students for summer writing conference and study abroad travel, as well as yearly travel funding and registration waivers for students attending the annual AWP conference.

* Three-year course requirements that enable MFA students to design up to 6 credits of independent study and 6 credits of professional internships, including opportunities to work in electronic publishing (editorial, web design, digital sound editing, and more) via the program’s nationally prominent online literary journal, Blackbird.

Contact Information

900 Park Ave Hibbs Hall Rm 306 Richmond Virginia, United States 23284-2005 Phone: 804-828-1329 Email: [email protected] https://english.vcu.edu/mfa/

Bachelor of Arts in English/Literature +

\nVirginia Commonwealth University offers undergraduate creative writing courses in fiction, poetry, and drama at both the introductory and advanced levels. Limited enrollment allows for individualized attention by instructors. Students frequently cite these courses as one of their most important undergraduate experiences. Of the ten upper-level courses required for the English major, undergraduates can take up to four in creative writing coursework. In addition, while no major in "creative writing" is currently offered, a minor in writing is available to all undergraduates, including English majors. The minor in writing is flexible, and students adapt it individually. It consists of 18 hours chosen from a list of selected writing courses, including creative writing, professional writing, and rhetoric courses. One of the courses in advanced nonfiction writing is required as a keystone course in the minor.

Minor / Concentration in Creative Writing +

Virginia Commonwealth University offers undergraduate creative writing courses in fiction, poetry, and drama at both the introductory and advanced levels. Limited enrollment allows for individualized attention by instructors. Students frequently cite these courses as one of their most important undergraduate experiences. Of the ten upper-level courses required for the English major, undergraduates can take up to four in creative writing coursework. In addition, while no major in “creative writing” is currently offered, a minor in writing is available to all undergraduates, including English majors. The minor in writing is flexible, and students adapt it individually. It consists of 18 hours chosen from a list of selected writing courses, including creative writing, professional writing, and rhetoric courses. One of the courses in advanced nonfiction writing is required as a keystone course in the minor.

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing +

Graduate program director.

VCU is a state institution with a total enrollment of more than 26,000 students on its two campuses in Richmond, the capital of Virginia. The Medical College of Virginia Campus is near the financial, governmental, and shopping areas of a newly-renovated downtown. The Academic Campus is in Richmond's historic Fan District, which dates back to the 19th century. VCU is Virginia's largest urban university and features one of the nation's most comprehensive evening colleges, a nontraditional student body (nearly half of VCU's students are more than 25 years old), and a well-established, highly respected School of the Arts with programs in painting, sculpture, crafts, theatre, dance, and music. The Jazz Orchestra has many times been judged the best in the country. The city of Richmond is itself an attraction to many students. Founded in 1727, it is now one of the South's fastest-growing and most cosmopolitan cities. Rich in historic significance, Richmond was an important site in the lives of Patrick Henry, Edgar Allan Poe, and Thomas Jefferson, to name only a few. The city offers enjoyable and affordable cultural activities, including a professional symphony orchestra and ballet, several theaters, and a number of important museums devoted to art, history, and science.

Designed to attract students from varied undergraduate backgrounds who are writers of promise, the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program is especially suited for those interested primarily in the writing of fiction or poetry. In addition, to expand students' writing experience and versatility, advanced workshops are also available in nonfiction, screenwriting, the novel, and play-writing. Students may also undertake editorial internships with Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts or with the VCU First Novelist Award, and may serve as well as judges for the annual Levis Reading Prize in Poetry. Additional internships may be arranged with other local publishers.

Students in the program are encouraged to develop a strong personal sense of aesthetic and ethics, and to pursue excellence in writing, scholarship, and teaching. Through the workshop experience, as well as personal conferences with the writing faculty, the program aims to help students to significantly advance the quality of their writing, and to enable them to become sensitive, knowledgeable readers who are expert critics of their own and others' work. Students broaden their literary sophistication in a wide range of available courses which examine the literature of varied historical periods and geographic areas, introduce a spectrum of critical theories and perspectives, and explore the techniques and possibilities of the various literary genres. Innovative graduate seminars in topics of special interest and focus are offered each semester. Degree requirements, while rigorous, are flexible so that they can be individually tailored to fit the student's needs and goals. The program's limited enrollment allows for personal attention to the student's writing by a nationally prominent faculty (graduate workshops are limited to 12 or fewer students), as well as for establishing friendships with other developing writers in a diverse and challenging, yet mutually supportive, community of artists.

Clint McCown

Clint McCown is the author of the novels Haints, The Weatherman, War Memorials, and The Member-Guest, as well as the collections of poetry Dead Languages, Wind Over Water, Sidetracks, Total Balance Farm and The Dictionary of Unspellable Noises: New & Selected Poems, 1975-2018 (forthcoming). Several of his plays have been produced, and he has worked as a screenwriter for Warner Bros. and as a creative consultant for HBO television. As a broadcast journalist he received an Associated Press Award for Documentary Excellence for his investigations of organized crime. He has also toured as a principal actor with the National Shakespeare Company. He is the only writer to have twice won the American Fiction Prize; he has also received the Society of Midland Authors Award, the S. Mariella Gable Prize, the Germaine Breé Book Award, the Midwest Book Award, a Distinction in Literature citation from the Wisconsin Library Association, and a Discover Great Writers designation from Barnes & Noble. His stories, essays, and poems have appeared widely. He has been a contributing editor to a dozen national literary magazines and was the founding editor of the Beloit Fiction Journal, which he published for twenty years.

http://english.vcu.edu/mfa/creative-writing-faculty/

Kathleen Graber

Kathleen Graber is the author of two collections of poetry, Correspondence (Saturnalia Books, 2006) and The Eternal City (Princeton University Press, 2010), which was finalist for the National Book Award, The National Book Critics Circle Award, and the winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Poetry. She is the recipient of fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has also been supported by a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University and an Amy Lowell Travelling Scholar. Her third collection of poems, The River Twice, is forthcoming from Princeton University Press.

Gregory Donovan

Gregory Donovan is the author of the poetry collections Torn from the Sun (Red Hen Press, 2015), given a starred review by Library Journal and named to its 2015 list of “Exciting New Works for National Poetry Month and Beyond” as well as being selected as a finalist for the Julie Suk Award from Jacar Press, and Calling His Children Home, winner of the Devins Award from the University of Missouri Press. In addition to poetry, essays, translations, and fiction published in The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, diode, Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast, Copper Nickel, TriQuarterly, and many other journals, his poems have been collected in a number of anthologies, including The Devins Award Poetry Anthology and Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets of Virginia. He has won the Robert Penn Warren prize sponsored by New England Writers and judged by Rosanna Warren, as well as grants and fellowships from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Ucross Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. With the writer/director Michele Poulos, he is a producer of A Late Style of Fire, the feature-length documentary film on the life and work of the poet Larry Levis with original soundtrack composed by Iron & Wine which premiered in 2016 at the Mill Valley Film Festival in California as well as being selected for seven more film festivals and featured in special screenings at poetry festivals and universities across the country. Donovan has often served as a visiting writer and guest faculty member for summer conferences such as the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Chautauqua Writers’ Center, the Chesapeake Writers Conference, the Vermont College of Fine Arts Postgraduate Writers’ Conference, the University of Tampa MFA Program, and the Other Words Conference of the Florida Literary Arts Coalition. He also has been a faculty member with VCU study abroad programs in Scotland and most recently in Peru. Donovan is the director of the Levis Reading Prize as well as the Rebecca Mitchell Tarumoto Short Fiction Prize, and he is Senior Editor of Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts. For additional information, his author website is: http://www.gregoryedonovan.com.

David Wojahn

David Wojahn was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1953, and educated at the University of Minnesota and the University of Arizona. His first collection, Icehouse Lights, was chosen by Richard Hugo as a winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize, and published in 1982. The collection was also the winner of the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Book Award. His second collection, Glassworks, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 1987, and was awarded the Society of Midland Authors’ Award for best volume of poetry to be published during that year. Pittsburgh is also the publisher of four of his subsequent books, Mystery Train (1990), Late Empire (1994), The Falling Hour (1997) and Spirit Cabinet (2002). Interrogation Palace: New and Selected Poems 1982–2004, published by Pittsburgh in 2006, was a named finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the O. B. Hardison Award from the Folger Shakespeare Library. He is also the author of a collection of essays on contemporary poetry, Strange Good Fortune (University of Arkansas Press, 2001), editor (with Jack Myers) of A Profile of 20th Century American Poetry (Southern Illinois University Press, 1991), and editor of two posthumous collections of Lynda Hull’s poetry, The Only World (HarperCollins, 1995) and Collected Poems (Graywolf, 2006). A new volume of his essays on poetry, From the Valley of Making, will appear in 2015 from the University of Michigan Press. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Virginia, Illinois and Indiana Councils for the Arts, and in 1987–88 was the Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholar. He has taught at a number of institutions, among them Indiana University, the University of Chicago, the University of Houston, the University of Alabama, and the University of New Orleans. He is presently Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, and is also a member of the program faculty of the MFA in Writing Program of Vermont College of the Fine Arts. His newest collection, World Tree, was published by Pittsburgh in the 2011, and was awarded the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Library of Virginia Book Award in Poetry, and the Poets’ Prize.

Sonja Livingston

Sonja Livingston's latest book, The Virgin of Prince Street: Expeditions into Devotion undertakes a series of sojourns through place and time to contemplate shifting religious and cultural concepts of devotion. She’s the author of the award-winning nonfiction books, Queen of the Fall and Ghostbread (winner of the AWP Prize and a Bronze Prize by Foreword), as well as Ladies Night at the Dreamland (named a best nonfiction book of 2016 by Kirkus). Recent essays appear The Kenyon Review, Salon, Sojourners and Lithub. Her work is widely anthologized in texts on writing and craft, including in Best of Brevity, Contemporary Creative Nonfiction, Waveform: Twenty-First Century Essays by Women, Poverty & Privilege: A Reader, and many others. Sonja’s nonfiction has received fellowships from the New York State Foundation for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Deming Fund, as well as awards from Arts & Letters, The Iowa Review, and Ruminate Magazine. Sonja taught in the MFA Program at the University of Memphis before coming to VCU and has also taught for Writing Workshops Abroad in Edinburgh, San Miguel de Allende, and Cork. She serves as Writer-in-Residence at the Gap Creek Writers Studio and faculty at Vermont College of Fine Art’s Postgraduate Writers’ Conference.

https://english.vcu.edu/mfa/creative-writing-faculty/

Gretchen Comba

Gretchen Comba is the author of the story collection The Stillness of the Picture (Kore Press, 2016). Her fiction has appeared in the Alaska Quarterly Review, The Greensboro Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, New Orleans Review, The North American Review, River City, The South Carolina Review, and Yemassee. She is a recipient of the F. Scott Fitagerald Award for Short Fiction and the Yemassee Award for Exceptional Contribution to the Magazine; in addition, she was selected as a finalist for the Danahy Fiction Prize (Tampa Review), and her work has earned Special Mention in the Pushcart Prize anthology. Gretchen’s scholarship on William Maxwell has appeared in MidAmerica: The Yearbook of the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, Oxford Bibliographies in American Literature Resources for American Literary Study. She received her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Katy Resch George

Katy Resch George is the author of the story collection Exposure, published by Kore Press with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The collection was a finalist for the Black Lawrence Press Hudson Award, the Press 53 Fiction Award, and the Snake Nation Press Serena McDonald Kennedy Award. Her stories have appeared in Blackbird, West Branch, Painted Bride Quarterly, Pank and other magazines and have been recognized by the annual Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions list and the storySouth Million Writers Awards. She is the recipient of artist grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and Richmond CultureWorks. Katy has taught for New York University, the City University of New York, and Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a proud graduate of the fiction MFA program at VCU and the poetry MFA program at Brooklyn College.

Jessica Nelson

Jessica Hendry Nelson is the author of the memoir If Only You People Could Follow Directions (2014), which was selected as a best debut book by the Indies Introduce New Voices program, the Indies Next List by the American Booksellers' Association, named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Review, received starred reviews in Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly, and reviewed nationally in print and on NPR—including twice in (O) Oprah Magazine. It was also a finalist for the Vermont Book Award. She is also co-author of the forthcoming textbook and anthology Advanced Creative Nonfiction along with the writer Sean Prentiss (Bloomsbury, 2020). Her work has appeared in The Threepenny Review, Prairie Schooner, Tin House, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, The Carolina Quarterly, Columbia Journal, Painted Bride Quarterly, Crab Orchard Review, PANK, Drunken Boat and elsewhere.

Publications & Presses +

New Virginia Review

Visiting Writers Program +

Richard Bausch • Bruce Beasley • Aimee Bender • Charles Bernstein • John Bresland • Linda Bierds • Robert Olen Butler • Ron Carlson • John Casey • Victoria Chang • Kelly Cherry • Joan Connor • Rebecca Curtis • Dennis Danvers • Samuel R. Delany • Mark Doty • Stuart Dybek • Mary Gaitskill • Beckian Fritz Goldberg • Linda Gregerson • Elizabeth Hand • Ron Hansen • Terrance Hayes • Fanny Howe • Richard Jackson • Allison Joseph • Alison Kennedy • Yusef Komunyaaka • Nick Lantz • Katherine Larson • Dana Levin • Philip Levine • Kelly Link • Bret Lott • Thomas Lux • Elizabeth McCracken • Thomas Mallon • Melinda Moustakis • Craig Nova • Stanley Plumly • Paisley Rekdal • Sheri Reynolds • David Rivard • Mary Ruefle • George Saunders • Alan Shapiro • Tom Sleigh • Gerald Stern • Darin Strauss • Ellen Bryant Voigt • Colson Whitehead • CK Williams • Charles Wright • Dean Young • Matthew Zapruder

Reading Series +

VCU Visiting Writers Series ( http://english.vcu.edu/about/visiting-writers/ )

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Creative Writing Collections Suggestions

Suggest materials to add to VCU Libraries creative writing collections.

Contact Kevin Farley directly at [email protected] or (804) 828-8772 to discuss VCU Libraries collections.

Purchase Suggestion Form Suggest something to VCU Libraries to add to the collections by filling out a form, which will be reviewed by a librarian for possible addition to VCU Libraries.

Local Resources

• VCU's Creative Writing Program The Department of English at VCU is home to a creative writing program where graduate students can earn a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. In addition to the program itself, the Department publishes Blackbird: an Online Journal of Literature and the Arts , as well as hosting a variety of readings from VCU and visiting writers.
• James River Writers The James River Writers association is a " nonprofit, Richmond, Virginia-based group of professional writers and friends of literature who have joined to promote the art of writing and the love of books in Virginia." They sponsor many different activities, from a local writing conference to regular readings and poetry slams. Substantial calendar of listings for local literary events.
• The Poetry Society of Virginia "Since 1923 the PSV has been striving to encourage excellence in the writing, reading, and appreciation of poetry." This association runs competitions, holds meetings across the state, and has various useful information on their website.
• The Virginia Writers Club This organization is a "501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of writers and poets, screenwriters and playwrights, journalists and essayists, and other publishing professionals whose purpose is to support and stimulate the art, craft and business of writing, as well as advocate the literary arts in the Commonwealth." Their local chapter meets on a monthly basis as well as having separate critique groups.
• Visual Arts Center of Richmond The Visual Arts Center has a number of individual writing classes that can be taken by adults and children.

Try Something New

If you've never used this before, take a moment to check it out!

• Take Control of Scrivener 2 In this ebook, you'll take a creative voyage with Scrivener 2, a unique and popular content-generation tool. Scrivener supports wordsmiths of all types, and it's designed especially for long-form writing projects—scripts, novels, academic works, and more. more... less... Using Melville’s Moby-Dick as his exemplar, author Kirk McElhearn walks you through using Scrivener to create and manage a writing project. You'll learn how to use Scrivener’s Binder, Outliner, and Corkboard to develop characters and settings, collect and organize research materials, and arrange your scenes. Kirk even explains how to keep yourself on track by composing in Scrivener's Full Screen mode and by setting daily progress targets, all on the way to helping you produce a polished, submission-ready manuscript.

Call: 1-866-VCU-BOOK E-mail: [email protected] More contact information

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