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At a Glance
The University of Virginia's Creative Writing Program offers a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in poetry and fiction writing, undergraduate English concentrations in poetry and literary prose, and elective coursework at the undergraduate and graduate levels. If you are just beginning, we have 2000-level classes in our undergraduate curriculum that are open enrollment (though some sections are restricted to first- and second-year students). Intermediate and advanced writers can take courses from our full-time faculty by instructor permission, and citizen scholars can also apply. See our undergraduate page for more information.
At the graduate level, we offer one of the best MFA programs in the country with award-winning faculty and alumni whose poetry and prose is in print or forthcoming from some of the top houses and prizes.
I used to think the power of words was inexhaustible,
That how we said the world
was how it was, and how it would be. [...]
I used to think these things when I was young.
I still do.
That how we said the world
was how it was, and how it would be. [...]
I used to think these things when I was young.
I still do.
Events
April 24, 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Monroe Hill House, Brown College, UVA
Join us for a reading by Rea Visitor Corinna Vallianatos to celebrate her new short story collection, Origin Stories, out now with Graywolf Press.
May 5, 2025
3:00 PM - 6:30 PM
3:00 PM - 6:30 PM
University Chapel
Join us as we celebrate our graduating MFA in Creative Writing class of 2025! Students will read from their creative writing theses in fiction and poetry.
In the News
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Max McDonough (APPW '14) wins St. Lawrence Book Award
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Congratulations to Max McDonough (APPW '14) whose collection Python with a Dog Inside It has won the 2023 St. Lawrence Book Award!
Black Lawrence Press writes: "Set on the marshlands of working-class southern New Jersey, Python with a Dog Inside It , the debut collection by poet Max McDonough
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Anna Beecher's We All Come Home Alive is Published
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Anna Beecher's second book, We All Come Home Alive, has been published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK.
Writing for The Guardian, Stephanie Merritt says:
The title of Anna Beecher’s first work of nonfiction can be read in various ways – an expression of triumph, relief or anticlimax. She
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Sarah V. Schweig Wins the Eighth Annual Jake Adam York Prize
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Please join us in celebrating the publication of The Ocean in the Next Room by UVA Creative Writing alum ('07) Sarah V. Schweig. Sarah's second collection was chosen for the Eighth Annual Jake Adam York Prize for a first or second poetry collection, a collaboration between Copper Nickel and Milkweed
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Rita Dove on Finding Your Roots
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Our very own Rita Dove is featured on Finding Your Roots, the PBS series in which Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the ancestry and background of a diverse range of guests. The PBS webpage for Finding Your Roots (linked below) highlights that on this episode, "Rita learns about her