ASU Creative Writing Program
Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference Sponsor 2019
About ASU Creative Writing Program
The MFA in Creative Writing at ASU has always been an unswervingly student-first program. Through small classes, intimate workshops, and one-to-one mentoring, the centuries-old apprenticeship model thrives within the New American University.
Poets and fiction writers work with an outstanding faculty--T.M. McNally, Tara Ison, Matt Bell, Jennifer Irish, Alberto Rios, Norman Dubie, Natalie Diaz, and Sally Ball--that has published more than 80 books and has garnered national and international attention through awards that include: National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the Pulitzer Prize, the International Griffin Poetry Prize, the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, and two Medals of Achievement from the National Society of Arts and Letters.
The program's alumni are equally impressive, having won the Iowa Short Fiction Award, the Pen Southwest Book Award, the Prairie Schooner Book Prize, the May Swenson Poetry Award, the Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award, and numerous Pushcart Prizes. They are the recipients of grants from the NEA and Fulbright and Stegner Fellowships.
Currently, all students admitted to the MFA program who submit a complete and approved teaching assistantship application are awarded a TAship by the Department of English. Each teaching assistantship carries a three course per year load and includes a tuition waiver and health insurance in addition to the TA stipend ($16,000 per year).
Additional opportunities for students are available through the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. We also offer the Swarthout Prize, one of the largest Creative Writing Awards in the nation.
To learn more, visit our website at https://english.clas.asu.edu/about/academic-program-areas/creative-writing.