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Chapel Hill has always been a magnet for writers. Some students come with the goal of becoming novelists or short story writers or poets or dramatists; others discover their vocations while  undergraduates.

The University has long had a vigorous writing tradition, beginning when “Proff” Koch, Paul Green, and Samuel Selden were working with Thomas Wolfe, Kay Kyser, Betty Smith, Frances Gray Patton, and Howard Richardson in the early twentieth century. Beginning in 1947 and continuing for almost two decades,  Jessie Rehder served as a one-woman program and published several books of her students’ work; upon her death in 1966, Max Steele became director of Creative Writing the program expanded to include such legendary writers as Doris Betts and Daphne Athas. In the years since, Carolina’s Creative Writing program has been home to luminaries like Randall Kenan, Lee Smith, Sarah Dessen, Carolyn Kizer, Algonquin Books founder Louis D. Rubin, Alan Shapiro, Pam Durban, Michael Chitwood, and Marianne Gingher. Hundreds of alumni have gone on to write books, films, albums, plays, and television shows, pursue graduate study in creative writing, and publish stories, poems, and essays in the world’s best journals, magazines, and newspapers.

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While most graduate students in UNCW’s program are writing with the aim of commercial publication, and the knowledge they gain in the Pub Lab will no doubt help them in that regard, we hope that participation in publishing arts courses and internships will broaden and inform their understanding of books and communication in general.

For graduate students hoping to pursue careers in publishing, including management of literary publications and promotion of writers’ events, the Pub Lab provides an excellent training ground. Students completing any of the following publishing courses are eligible for assistantship opportunities in the Department of Creative Writing and elsewhere; Lookout Books interns (chosen each semester by application) gain valuable editorial, design, marketing, and business management skills as well.

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While students apply in and focus primarily on one genre, cross-genre study is encouraged.

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2022 Creative Writing MFA Applicants Forum

• creative writing

By CanadianKate March 22, 2021 in Literary

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CanadianKate

For those of us who plan to apply for a Creative Writing MFA in 2021 (start date 2022)

• CHRISTOPHER QUANG BUI and Brother Panda

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March 3, 2022

GUYS I GOT INTO IOWA OMFG

March 10, 2022

WAITLISTED AT HOLLINS!!!!!!!

February 11, 2022

Cross posted to Draft but I JUST GOT INTO GEORGE MASON???? FOR POETRY???? WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL??? I'M SO HAPPY I just checked the portal and the decision was there I haven't heard about notifs or

Hi, I may or may not apply this fall. It all depends if I can obtain letters of rec from these continuing studies English instructors since I've been out of school for eight years. It would be my first application cycle.  ?

• CanadianKate , Leeannitha and Brother Panda

Hi! I am an extreme planner and planning to apply this year. Working on getting my list of schools whittled down over the next few months. :) 

• CanadianKate , Brother Panda , lenagator1997 and 1 other
• 2 weeks later...

Hello! This will be my second time applying. (Didn’t apply last year but the year before.) I am starting much earlier this year than last time!

So far, I am applying to Iowa (fiction), UMass Amherst (poetry), Stegner Fellowship @ Stanford (LOL- thought I’d give it a shot) and Michener. Going to be adding some more as I narrow it down. 

Brother Panda

On 3/22/2021 at 3:26 PM, CanadianKate said: For those of us who plan to apply for a Creative Writing MFA in 2021 (start date 2022)

Thanks for starting this! Didn’t apply for the season getting results right now but did do some major lurking. 

• 3 weeks later...

On 3/22/2021 at 12:26 PM, CanadianKate said: For those of us who plan to apply for a Creative Writing MFA in 2021 (start date 2022)

Hey, thanks for starting a new thread, Kate! 

Oof, here we go again...

• CanadianKate and Brother Panda
• 3 yr dr. t pinned this topic

Hey all! I'm an MFA student who haunts these forums because I remember what it was like to be waiting to hear back from programs. I have a few things to say to applicants if you're willing to listen. 

1) Only apply to funded programs. I know it's old advice, but  it's still good advice. Even funded programs that are "lower" tier are still better than the best unfunded program. Consider that Columbia costs around 150k, comparable to medical school, and that even doctors have a hard time paying off their loans. So please don't think you'll be paying it off with writing. Only go to a non-funded school if you have 150k to spend, in which case, do it if you really want to. It will still be the same thing--some workshops, some other classes, some award-winning writers. Every MFA has that stuff.

2) Actually do your homework. Read some work by the authors at these programs. If you like the work, mention that author by name in your statement of purpose. Everyone loves to be complimented, and they will feel good knowing that you have actually done the work of seriously looking into the school. And speaking of SoPs, actually take the time to truly tailor each one to the school.

3) Submit your best (and favorite) work. Take your best and favorite story or two (or poem or essay) and revise and revise and revise until every single word can stand trial and still remain in the story. As Raymond Carver said (quoting another author), you are finished revising when, on one pass, you take a single comma out of the story, and on the next pass, you put it back in.

4) Submit and forget. Once you've submitted, go back to doing things you love. Go to the gym. Hang out with friends. Anything that will be good for your soul and push the dreaded decision letter out of your mind.

Good luck everyone! It took me a couple application rounds to get into a program. If you don't get in, just keep living and writing and try again next time.

• evergreen13 , jasey roberts , lenagator1997 and 3 others

Hey, y'all! Glad to see some familiar faces around here. For those of you who don't know me, I've been on GradCafe for a couple years. I did two rounds of applications before I got into the right program, and this board was so helpful! I'll be popping in occasionally to offer my opinions/bother y'all.

It's still way early in the cycle, but I will say: don't underestimate the importance of the research phase! I rushed through it my first round, and it bit me in the butt. If funding is a major concern (and it should be for most applicants), I recommend digging deep for less famous programs. UMass, Michener, Iowa, etc. are great, but applying to 5 programs that accept >1% of applicants gives you much lower chances than applying to one program that accepts 10% (e.g. Hollins -- which is still fully-funded and well-respected). And trust me, each program you add to your list piles on more work than you think.

Aaaanyway, good luck, everyone! I'll see you around :)

• Brother Panda and CHRISTOPHER QUANG BUI

I was a bit of  lurker last year. I can't even remember what my username was. But I am taking the 2022 application round much more seriously. I've already started on my writing sample. I know someone else started a thread for 2022. The problem is she called it 2021, which is the same thing the thread was called last year. People are going to end posting on both threads called 2021, and we'll have to check two threads. It is better to have a thread called 2022. So what are people doing: are they editing their writings sample from last year, or are they starting from scratch? 

After getting rejected this year I was finally able to put MFAs out of my mind. I didn't feel at all motivated for this next application cycle, even though I explicitly had the intentions of applying again. Well, now I'm finally sucked back into thinking about it every day.

Janice Salley

Considering applying to (in alphabetical order):

Alabama Alaska Denver Houston Iowa Johns Hopkins Kansas Mississippi Missouri Nebraska Syracuse Tennessee Vanderbilt WashU (in St. Louis)  

lenagator1997

I'm an incoming MFA CW Nonfiction student going to The University of New Hampshire who applied in Fall 2020. If anyone wants any advice on the application process as a whole, or about any of the programs I applied to below let me know! My biggest pieces of advice are:

1. Have your portfolio reflect your best work, as well as the widest range of your abilities as a writer possible. Admission committees like to see your depth.

2. Ask for your letters of recommendation as early as possible to have a stress-free life for you and your professor.

3. Cast a wide net when applying for schools. I know they say rankings and selectivity don't matter but they do. (see book below for some statistics)

4. Figure out what type of program works best for you. Consider if you want high or low res, cross genre or a more focused program, size, faculty, ect.

Also here is a link to the book: The Insiders Guide to Graduate Degrees in Creative Writing, which I wish I would have found sooner in the process: https://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Graduate-Degrees-Creative-Writing/dp/1350000418

University of Wyoming

University of Minnesota

Columbia College Chicago

Rosemont College

University of New Hampshire

Hollins College

Sarah Lawrence

UNC Wilmington

Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) University of Washington (Seattle)

Colorado State

Hofstra University

Hey Guys, ( I think I posted on the wrong forum but if not, apologies for the double post!)

Washington University in St. Louis (WashU)

University of Washington (Seattle)

On 5/31/2021 at 12:52 AM, mrvisser said: After getting rejected this year I was finally able to put MFAs out of my mind. I didn't feel at all motivated for this next application cycle, even though I explicitly had the intentions of applying again. Well, now I'm finally sucked back into thinking about it every day.

After being rejected on the first round, I didn't think about my next round of MFA applications until mid July. The urge to apply came, went, then came back again. It's one of the things that stuck in my mind, much like writing, and there wasn't a way to get rid of it completely.

Hi, lenagator1997 .  Where did you hear that you should show "depth"? It just sounds impossible to do with the word caps. 

2 hours ago, molly s said: Hi, lenagator1997 .  Where did you hear that you should show "depth"? It just sounds impossible to do with the word caps. 

This might not be for all MFA programs, but I've observed if the page limits for the portfolios are 30+ or 20+ pages on certain applications, they like to see the different types of skills you have as a writer. (Unless you want to submit 20+ pages of a fiction novel. I'm nonfiction so I am less well versed in what you would do for that.) I made a very diverse portfolio which showed my range of style and thus depth. Even if the page limit was 10 pages, I would submit two very different essays in the two contrasting forms I was strongest in. (I think I had at least four different essays in my portfolio if the page limit was 30+ pages).

" different types of skills." - lenagator1997

Can you list these skills? All them, if possible because I don't really understand. 

11 hours ago, zacv said: " different types of skills." - lenagator1997 Can you list these skills? All them, if possible because I don't really understand. 

By skills I mean anything in your writing that would make you stand out as an applicant. Pick stories, poems, essays ect that best represents your strengths/uniqueness and thus skills as a writer. For example, my strongest skills (and uniqueness) as a nonfiction writer include weaving external research or information into longer personal narratives and playing with form. In contrast my weakest skills are writing shorter essays that require a lot of poetic imagery. So in my portfolio I didn't include any essays that didn't represent the best of what I can do. There isn't any list I can give because the skills you have as a writer are so individual and different for everyone. I think it's important to understand your own work inside and out, especially in what you are submitting in the portfolio know what your writing shows about you as the applicant.

• 4 weeks later...

Just wanted to wish all who are applying or re-applying for Fall 2022 admission this round luck! For those just coming into this world, do your research while making your school spreadsheet! I have seen many a post from people who didn't get in anywhere because they only applied to the top 3 in the whole country. Cast a wide net everyone. Getting into full residency MFA programs are competitive. I personally had no idea. Selectivity percentage should not deter anyone from applying, but to be aware of it is helpful, and these numbers usually fluctuates from year to year. At the end of the day, apply to the places that are the best fit for you and I would hate to see anyone become devastated. Below is information paraphrased (not directly quoted) from "The Insiders Guide to Graduate Degrees in Creative Writing" by Seth Abramson. I believe he is a sound source on this topic.

The heavy hitting schools we have all heard about like; Vanderbilt, University of Iowa, NYU,  Washington University in St. Louis, University of Texas Austin, Boston University, University of Wyoming, UMass Amherst, Brown, Cornell, Johns Hopkins ect. all have an acceptance rate less than 5%. These also happen to be in the "very selective" category and tend to have a smaller group of students. The schools in the "selective" category like; University of Maryland, University of North Carolina Wilmington, New Mexico State, and University of New Hampshire (UNH) fall around (8-15%). If you want to find out more, check out the book: https://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Graduate-Degrees-Creative-Writing/dp/135000040X/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=guide+to+graduate+degrees+in+creative+writing&qid=1609448517&sr=8-2#reader_135000040X

mr. specific

Hey so I applied last year to 5 places (in poetry) and wound up being waitlisted at Michener and Wisconsin. Not a total loss, but I'm finding it hard not to be discouraged and go through the whole thing again, even though I do think my writing is better than this time last year. So who knows. I'm wondering if I should cast a wider net, or if there is some way to improve my application. 

On 7/6/2021 at 8:40 AM, mr. specific said: Hey so I applied last year to 5 places (in poetry) and wound up being waitlisted at Michener and Wisconsin. Not a total loss, but I'm finding it hard not to be discouraged and go through the whole thing again, even though I do think my writing is better than this time last year. So who knows. I'm wondering if I should cast a wider net, or if there is some way to improve my application.     

MFA CW programs are selective at the best of times so casting a wider net may be beneficial! I applied to 13 places in 2020. It was difficult to discern which ones were more selective than others, but I focused more on if I liked their curriculum, faculty, and if I thought my writing style meshed with their programs.

On 7/6/2021 at 11:40 AM, mr. specific said: Hey so I applied last year to 5 places (in poetry) and wound up being waitlisted at Michener and Wisconsin. Not a total loss, but I'm finding it hard not to be discouraged and go through the whole thing again, even though I do think my writing is better than this time last year. So who knows. I'm wondering if I should cast a wider net, or if there is some way to improve my application.     

I tend to be suspicious of casting a wide net for grad apps. That strategy can make it harder to research each program thoroughly, which can lead you to attend one that's a poor fit. For example, there have been a few people in my program that ended up disappointed because they actually wanted cohort with a more conservative, literary aesthetic (in other words, they probably didn't do any research aside from reading the website...).

I know the feeling: you're itching to get in and want to ensure success. But I think you can save yourself a lot of trouble by looking for a handful of programs that are truly what you want -- because those are also the programs most likely to accept you. They're the programs that will get your most inspired personal statements, and they're more likely to have adcoms with similar aesthetics to yours.

If you don't have many specific ideas about what you want, I'd really recommend starting there (e.g. Do you want teaching experience? Do you want to take classes outside your genre? Will it piss you off if you're required to take a lot of literature courses?). I highly, highly advise talking to current students/alums before you even start on your application to a program. Last year, I talked to a student who helped me decide that her program was a bad fit for me. This saved me hours of work and 75 dollars.

Also, keep in mind that 10+ applications is a LOT of work. As you probably know, many programs have different requirements. Moreover, tailoring your personal statement to each school will take twice as long as you expect (at least, this was my experience in my 2 rounds of apps).

The wide net approach can certainly work, as it did for lenagator. But personally, I believe in quality over quantity. And anyway, if you got waitlisted at Michener, you certainly don't need to worry about being "good enough" ;-)

Thanks feralgrad. That makes a lot of sense. 

I guess the first time around I used one metric only—how much was the fellowship, and didn't do any more research. This still seems like the critical question, like can i afford to live on this without debt or taking on another fulltime job outside the program. And I only came up with five that seemed like they promised that—Brown, Cornell, Michener, Wisconsin, Umass, (and Michigan and Florida, but I didn't remember to do these apps). So I'd be interested in other schools people know of that 1) promise funding upwards of ~25,000 a year and 2) guarantee funding (more or less equally) to all their students.  

Not to single any one school out, but I just looked at Hollins' page, which up front claims that they are "extremely well-funded," but after clicking through a few more pages saw that the first year stipend was $7000!    

12 hours ago, mr. specific said: Not to single any one school out, but I just looked at Hollins' page, which up front claims that they are "extremely well-funded," but after clicking through a few more pages saw that the first year stipend was $7000!    

I also had been considering Hollins, but laughed out loud at the stipend. It's nice to offer some funding, but for that you'll have to take out loans, which I am totally unwilling to do for an MFA.

Has everyone decided where they're applying to? So far, I've decided on Alabama, Brown, Chatham, Cornell, Emerson, Hollins, UMich, Vanderbilt, and WashU.

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University of North Carolina, Wilmington

North carolina, united states.

The UNCW Department of Creative Writing is a community of passionate, dedicated writers who believe that the creation of art is valuable to self and culture. Our faculty encourages a rigorous yet supportive environment in which writers can grow as artists and as individuals. We believe excellence starts with an informed application of craft and we encourage writers to explore aesthetics and methods across genre lines.

The Department of Creative Writing is an independent department housed in its own building, keeping its undergraduate and graduate communities all in one place. It offers BFA and MFA degrees in Fine Arts (Creative Writing), both programs also having the potential of an extensive publishing and editing component.

UNCW’s MFA Program is celebrating its 20th anniversary and there is no better way to do that than by looking back on the successes of our students. That is where we pride ourselves. Our students and alumni have published more than 90 books and chapbooks. Jason Mott’s first novel became last season’s ABC TV series The Returned; Brad Land’s debut memoir Goat is being filmed as I write this; Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams received a $25,000 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award and a $50,000 Whiting Writers Award; Arianna Nash won the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry; Rochelle Hurt won the Barrow Street Book Prize; Leah Osowski won the Wick Poetry Prize at Kent State; Emily Carr won the New Measures Poetry Prize; Xhenet Aliu won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize; the list of books goes on and on-- publishers such as St. Martins; Algonquin; Viking; Ballantine; Morrow; Random House; Simon and Schuster. Alumni have published some hundreds of poems, stories, essays, reviews in prominent and vital venues. Indeed, here are a few of the magazines with which recent students published while still in the program: The Georgia Review, Black Warrior Review, The Journal, Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, Colorado Review, Agni, North American Review, Green Mountains Review, Third Coast, Puerto del Sol, Passages North, Oxford American, River Teeth, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre; The Paris Review Daily, Poetry International, Granta Online, and The Nation.

We are a faculty of 15 seasoned, well published, working writers, all teaching graduate coursework in writing, literature, translation, or publishing, editing and book design. We offer the traditional tracks of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, with a graduate course available in screenwriting.

We enjoy a community of 63 students undertaking a three-year program of study in an independent department of creative writing housed in its own building. The community is all in one place. Cross-genre study is not only encouraged—it is required. Our workshops are capped at 14 and often run much smaller. No one phones it in here. We take pride in mentoring our students. And we take pride in engendering a rigorous, but very supportive atmosphere amongst the students.

We offer 9-10 GTAships each year, each paying a stipend of $15,500 and involving the teaching of creative writing or publishing and editing, or, in two cases, film studies, at the undergraduate level.

One opportunity that sets us apart is our Publishing Laboratory and its imprint Lookout Books. Students have now edited, designed and published five national titles, one of which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Pub Lab also houses two national literary magazines, Ecotone and Chautauqua.

Please visit our website (below) and view a short video about us. We are proud of our MFA and BFA programs in Creative Writing, and of that unique, state-of-the-art Publishing Laboratory, where both graduate and undergraduate students learn all aspects of publishing in a hands-on environment that is unique in higher education. You can also read about our award-winning semiannual journal, Ecotone, and its sister book imprint, Lookout Books, at ecotonelookout.org.

Get to know us. Check out the faculty.

Then, we hope you’ll consider joining us.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Contact Information

601 S. College Road Creative Writing Department Wilmington North Carolina, United States 28403 Phone: (910) 962-3331 Email: [email protected] Fax: 910-962-7461 http://http://uncw.edu/writers/

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing +

Undergraduate program director.

Students may declare a major in Creative Writing and enter the BFA degree program only after submitting a successful portfolio for review by the faculty. Students must also have demonstrated their talent and dedication in one of the basic prerequisite courses in creative writing by receiving a grade of B or better.

The BFA program provides an intensive apprenticeship in writing, informed by the close study of literature, to serious, aspiring writers, among a community of accomplished professional writers. Training is provided in the art of writing within the context of studies in aesthetics, the literary tradition, the craft and profession of publishing, and broad liberal arts subject matter relevant to the student's need and goals. Our primary educational goals include: 1) providing dedicated and talented students with a rigorous apprenticeship in the art and craft of creating literature; 2) developing students' critical faculties, their understanding of literary forms, and their aesthetic judgment; 3) providing students with a strong intellectual foundation in the historical literary tradition, grounding their practice of the art of writing in an understanding of how that art has been practiced by the greatest classic and contemporary authors; and 4) providing a thoughtful interdisciplinary foundation for understanding creative writing's relationship to other arts and scholarly areas.

We value and promote cross-genre versatility. The major and minor require a beginning creative writing course in the chosen genre, then specialization in one or more genres, culminating in a senior seminar, a senior thesis, and a reading. Courses are also offered in screenwriting and playwriting. Atlantis is the undergraduate literary magazine, fully staffed by student editors. Each year, based on a judging of undergraduate manuscripts, the program awards the Sam Ragan Prizes in Poetry and the Jessie Rehder Short Story Awards. Students benefit from contact with numerous nationally-known visiting Writers-in-Residence and speakers, including guests during the department's annual week-long Writers' Symposium.

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing +

Graduate program director.

We enjoy a community of approximately 66 students undertaking a three-year program of study in an independent department of creative writing housed in its own building. The community is all in one place. Cross-genre study is not only encouraged—it is required. Our workshops are capped at 14 and often run much smaller. No one phones it in here. We take pride in mentoring our students. And we take pride in engendering a rigorous, but very supportive atmosphere amongst the students.

We offer differing numbers of GTAships each year, but each pays a stipend of $15,000 and involves the teaching of creative writing or publishing and editing, or, in one case, film studies, at the undergraduate level.

One opportunity that sets us apart is our Publishing Laboratory and its imprint Lookout Books. Students have now edited, designed and published five national titles, one of which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Pub Lab also houses two national literary magazines.

Please visit our website (below) and view a short video about us. We are proud of our MFA and BFA programs in Creative Writing, and of that unique, state-of-the-art Publishing Laboratory, where both graduate and undergraduate students learn all aspects of publishing in a hands-on environment that is unique in higher education. You can also read about our award-winning semiannual journal, Ecotone, and its sister book imprint, Lookout Books, at ecotonelookout.org!

Natural Causes, Thirty-Seven Years from the Stone, Smoulder: Poems

 https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/cox.html

Nina de Gramont

The Last September; The Boy I Love; Meet Me at the River; Of Cats and Men; Gossip Of The Starlings

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/degramont.html

Clyde Edgerton

Papadaddy's Book for New Fathers,The Night Train, The Bible Salesman, Solo: My Adventures in the Air,

Lunch at the Piccadilly: A Novel (2003)

Where Trouble Sleeps ,Redeye: A Western ,In Memory of Junior, Killer Diller , The Floatplane Notebooks (1988)

Walking Across Egypt ,Raney

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/edgerton.html

David Gessner

All the Wild That Remains; The Tarball Chronicles;)

My Green Manifesto; Soaring with Fidel; The Prophet of Dry Hill; Sick of Nature; Return of the Osprey; Under the Devil's Thumb; A Wild, Rank Place

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/gessner.html

Rebecca Lee

Bobcat and Other Stories, The City Is a Rising Tide

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/lee.html

Robert Anthony Siegel

All Will Be Revealed, All the Money in the World

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/siegel.html

BFA Coordinator, work in Haunted Voices, Haunting Places: An Anthology of Writers of the Old and New South, Big Muddy, 55 Words, Prick of the Spindle, Aries, Calliope, winner, Authors in the Park Short Story Prize

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/bass.html 

Malena Morling

Ocean Avenue; Astoria; The Star By My Head: Poets from Sweden; On Foot I Wandered Through The Solar Systems

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/morling.html

Anna Lena Phillips Bell

A Pocket Book of Forms; 32 Poems, Colorado Review, the Southern Review, the Southern Poetry Anthology Vol. VII: North Carolina, the Raintown Review, Southern Poetry Review, the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Really System, Canary, and 111O.

 https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/phillips.html

author of two poetry collections: We Call This Thing Between Us Love and … Hide Behind Me… His debut novel, The Returned, was optioned

-pre-release!- by actor Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, as a television series and premiered on the ABC network in 2014 under the title Resurrection (2 seasons). His second novel, The Wonder of All Things has been optioned -also pre-release!- by Lionsgate Films for the big screen.

https://jasonmottauthor.com/

Sayantani Dasgupta

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/dasgupta.html

Michelle Donahue

 https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/donahue.html

KaToya Ellis Fleming

 https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/fleming.html

Jill Gerard

 https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/gerardj.html

Melody Moezzi

https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/moezzi.html

Michael Ramos

 https://uncw.edu/writers/faculty/ramos.html

Sarah Domet

https://sarahdomet.com/the-guineveres/

Emily Louise Smith

https://www.emilylouisesmith.org/

Publications & Presses +

Lookout Books

Publishing Laboratory

Visiting Writers Program +

Mei Fong, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Ilya Kaminsky, Steve Almond, Scott Cairns, Cristina Garcia, Patricia Hampl, Cynthia Huntington, Van Jordan, Jason Mott, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Bob Reiss, Mary Ruefle, Natasha Trethewey; Nikki Finney; Roxane Gay; Michael Taeckens; Bill Roorbach; Jill McCorkle;

Reading Series +

Writers Week ( http://uncw.edu/writersweek/ )

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Ecotone is the winner of CLMP’s 2023 Firecracker Award for Magazines/General Excellence. Thanks to our contributors and staff!

Work with Ecotone: Opportunities for UNCW MFA students

E cotone is made by faculty and MFA students in the department of creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Our work is intense, intensely collaborative, and a lot of fun. MFA editors and designers emerita have gone on to positions at such magazines and presses as Sierra , Southern Humanities Review , Longleaf Review , Graywolf Press, Autumn House Press, the University of Minnesota Press, and Milkweed Editions, to name a few—as well as teaching and publishing their own work. Join us!

Want to be part of the Ecotone team? Prospective MFA students: Details about the MFA program at UNCW can be found on UNCW’s MFA program page , and details about how to apply can be found on our prospective students page . Applications for fall 2023 are due January 7, 2023.

Current MFA students who have not take the Ecotone practicum before: Please see the course descriptions page for details about the upcoming CRW524: Ecotone practicum, offered each fall. Then, using the instructions in the course description, write to editor Anna Lena Phillips Bell to request permission to register. (The address listed on this page is for students and not for inquiries about submissions. Thanks for your understanding.)

Staff Positions, Editorships, and Assistantships

Ecotone readers and staff members (practicum course): The magazine offers two intensive practicums for UNCW MFA students. CRW524, taught by editor Anna Lena Phillips Bell, is for students new to the magazine. This practicum runs only in the fall semester. The work for the course includes learning the magazine’s aesthetic, reading submissions, fact checking forthcoming work, setting run order, drafting paratext, and brainstorming special features and promotions, among other things. The course may be taken more than once. If you’re a current or incoming UNCW MFA student who is interested in working with the magazine and/or applying for an editorial position, please contact Bell for permission to register. Details can be found in the course description, on this page .

Editors (practicum course): Students who have taken the initial practicum in a fall semester may apply in spring for section-editor positions with the magazine, in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Section editors take an advanced practicum, also taught by Bell, in which they manage submissions and reading in their genre, acquire work, top edit, and lead edit, among other tasks.

Graduate assistant/managing editor (paid assistantship): Typically every other year, the editor selects an MFA student to become managing editor of Ecotone. This graduate assistantship, at twenty hours per week, is awarded to a rising second-year MFA student without an existing assistantship. The managing editor works closely with the editor and has the opportunity to learn a wide range of skills related to magazine editing, production, and promotion.

Designers (paid assistantships): The magazine’s interior spreads are designed by teaching assistants in The Publishing Laboratory, supervised by art director Michael Ramos. These assistantships are awarded upon acceptance to the MFA program. In addition, one Pub Lab TA, selected by the faculty before entering their second year in the program, serves as Ecotone ’s designer, and works with the art director and editor on our isssues’ interior layout, among other design projects.

Universities

University of North Carolina Wilmington

MFA in Creative Writing

University of North Carolina Wilmington, North Carolina

Department of Creative Writing

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• A popular choice for international students with a diverse community
• Learn from the best faculty members and become their research assistants
• High-end labs to facilitate research work
• Excellent placement programs after course completion

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$49,440 / 36 months

5000+ Students

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• Three letters of recommendation 
• All official college transcripts

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The Master of Fine Arts in creative writing is a two-year full residency program with an emphasis on providing studio time for the writing of poetry or fiction. Our students develop their particular talents through small classes in writing, literature, and publishing. As part of a community of writers, students read and comment on each other’s work under the guidance of distinguished faculty, who also meet with students in one-on-one tutorials.

Join Our Community of Writers

• Full funding
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• Cohorts of 10-12 writers
• Assistantships & internships in teaching and editing
• One-on-one faculty tutorials
• Workshops & seminars in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, literary editing, and publishing

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Jennine capó crucet fiction reading, michael parker: the last lecture, the history the uncg mfa program.

The MFA Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is one of the oldest such programs in the country. During the early years, the University had among its faculty noted writers such as Allen Tate, Caroline Gordon, John Crowe Ransom, Hiram Haydn, Peter Taylor, and Randall Jarrell. They invited other distinguished authors to campus to meet with students and read from their work; these writers included Saul Bellow, Robert Frost, Robert Lowell, Flannery O’Connor, Robert Penn Warren, and Eudora Welty.

In 1965, under the leadership of Robert Watson, creative writing offerings were formalized. Since that time, the faculty has intentionally kept the program small, enabling students to work one-on-one with faculty in a community of writers.

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