THE UVA MFA PROGRAM

The University of Virginia's MFA in Creative Writing Program is a three-year graduate program that, starting in 2023–24, admits four poets and four fiction writers each academic year. Students have the option to graduate in two years on an accelerated schedule. Our program is full time and residency is required for all years of study.* All of our students receive the same financial support (up to $30,000 in fellowships and/or wage income each academic year).

WHAT MAKES UVA UNIQUE?

Applicants often ask what makes UVA any different from other MFA programs. There are many possible answers, but among our favorites are:

• Our graduate classes are small and our faculty-to-student ratio is very high. We will be accepting four students in poetry and four in fiction writing for the 2023–24 academic year.
• All our students receive the same amount of funding, and they do not have to re-compete. We believe this promotes collegiality among our students and supportive, constructive workshops.
• Our students do not teach in the fall of their first year, which preserves time for writing—one of the main reasons students go to MFA programs in the first place. First-year students teach one creative writing class in the spring.
• Our students teach creative writing classes in fiction and poetry largely of their own design (they don't just run a discussion section of a larger course or do freshman comp).
• Our program also offers great academic flexibility, enabling our MFA students to take graduate-level courses from faculty in other UVA departments and schools like studio art, politics, education, music, and drama, just to name a few.
• We are one of only five graduate programs that awards an annual $15,000 Henfield Prize to a currently-enrolled student for outstanding work in fiction.
• And we think our faculty is among the best in the nation. See our faculty page for a full listing and more details.

REA VISITING WRITERS AND LECTURERS

Through the generosity of the Dungannon Foundation, our MFA students also study under Rea Visiting Writers and Lecturers. Rea Visiting Writers take residence at UVA for one week, give a public reading of their work, and conduct a craft talk with our MFAs and advanced undergraduates. The Rea Writers also receive manuscripts from our MFA students in advance of their visit, and while in residence, conduct intensive one-on-one manuscript consultations. Rea Lecturers visit for a shorter duration, give a public reading of their work, and conduct a craft talk with our MFAs and advanced undergraduates. We host at least two Rea Writers each year (one in fiction, one in poetry) and as many Rea Lecturers as funding and time permit. 

KAPNICK FOUNDATION DISTINGUISHED WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE

In addition to our permanent faculty, the University of Virginia is also home of the Kapnick Foundation Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, a new program in the tradition of William Faulkner’s legendary residencies at the University in 1957 and 1958. The program brings writers of international stature to Charlottesville for extended stays to teach and engage with the UVA student body, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and to leave a lasting mark on the literary community. 

CURRICULUM

To receive the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, a student accepted into the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences complete a three-year program at the University of Virginia, with an option to graduate in two years. For details, see our MFA curriculum page.

MFA THESIS

Our students' final projects must comprise a substantial body of original writing of a hundred or more pages of fiction (short stories or a novel) or a collection of approximately thirty poems. The University of Virginia requires all degree candidates to file their theses online in the UVA Library's Libra database. Students have the option to restrict access to their theses (to just users on the UVA network) for up to ten years. For details, see our MFA curriculum page.

MERIDIAN

Our MFA program is also the home of Meridian (Web site here), a semiannual literary magazine edited by our graduate students and distributed nationally. Meridian publishes each spring. 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, and the Pushcart anthology.

AFTER GRADUATION

While what our students accomplish during their stay in Charlottesville is important to us, we're also very proud of what they've done afterward. Several writers from our recent graduating classes have distinguished themselves, our program, and the University of Virginia by winning important literary prizes including The Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets, Pushcart Prize selections, the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, the Yale Younger Poets Series Prize, the Barnard Women Poet's Prize, the Prix de Rome, and other awards. Our graduates continue to land major book contracts, even in a time of publishing turmoil. While many MFA programs advise you to read the work of their faculty before applying, we suggest another idea is to read the recent novels, poetry collections, memoirs, and short stories of our graduates. See our Alumni Books page for recent examples by UVA MFA alumni. Those same young writers have also gone on to become Stegner Fellows, Olive B. O'Connor Fellows, as well as becoming junior faculty members at colleges and universities across the nation. Recent student awards are listed here.

* By "residency is required," we mean that we are a full-time, traditional graduate program and expect our MFA students to live in/near Charlottesville and attend classes and program events.  We have had students live in nearby cities like Richmond or Lexington due to family or other needs, but we cannot alter academic class or teaching times to accommodate students who choose to commute.