About the Program
Thank you for your interest in the Boston University MFA Program in Creative Writing, one of the oldest and most prestigious programs in this country. Our alumni in poetry include Elizabeth Alexander, Erin Belieu, Rafael Campo, Melissa Green, Glyn Maxwell, Carl Phillips and Don Share; in fiction, our alumni include Peter Ho Davies, Arthur Golden, Ha Jin, Jhumpa Lahiri, Askold Melnyczuk, Melanie Rae-Thon, Weike Wang, and Lisa Taddeo. The Atlantic magazine has ranked our program among the top five percent of all creative writing programs for the distinction of its faculty and alumni, and has ranked ours among the top ten programs overall.
Most notably, however, our program offers to poets and fiction writers in a single year (usually including summer study) a rigorous combination of literary study and focus on craft equivalent to what other MFA programs accomplish in two years. Our program also offers practical experience in teaching creative writing at the high school or undergraduate level through teaching fellowships. Such an intensive curriculum is only possible because of the dedication, talent and energy of the students who choose to attend the BU MFA Program. The accelerated nature of the program creates close bonds between each year’s cohorts of poets and fiction writers, who also benefit from the intellectual and artistic stimulation of being part of a large university in one of the most lively and beautiful cities in the United States. Finally, our students have the opportunity for world language study, including the option of taking BU’s renowned Translation Seminar, culminating in a Global Fellowship that affords them the opportunity for travel, writing, and study for a period of up to three months anywhere outside of the United States.
Please note that the MFA in Playwriting is now separate from the Creative Writing Program in Fiction and Poetry. Playwriting is now a three-year program housed at the Boston Playwrights’ Theater. For information on the program and its admissions, please click here.
For further information about the BU MFA Program in Creative Writing, please contact:
Annaka Saari
Administrative Coordinator
Creative Writing Program
Boston University
236 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
(617) 353-2510
crwr@bu.edu
We look forward to reviewing your application, and send you good wishes for your writing.