Creative Writing

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Forty-eight credits required. To receive the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, a student accepted into the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences completes a two-year residential program at the University of Virginia. Students may take up to five years to complete program coursework, but fellowships and other guaranteed support does not generally extend beyond a student’s second year. For more details, see the program website at creativewriting.virginia.edu.

Standard Coursework:

• Twelve hours (four three-credit-hour courses) of graduate-level workshop, ENWR 7310 for fiction students, or ENWR 7610 for poetry students; and
• Twelve hours (four three-credit-hour courses) in literature at the graduate level; and
• Twenty-four hours of non-topical research (ENWR 8999).

Literature credits consist of graduate-level coursework in the English Department, approved graduate-level courses from other departments, or independent studies in literature.  There is no foreign language requirement or proficiency exam for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.